Rae

1) As an adoptee who has studied adoption trauma, childhood development, reproductive health history, and a bit of women's rights, I feel the issue of abortion is incredibly important in the U.S. today. It touches on several key values of our national culture, including gender, workforce support for pregnancy and parenting, self-determination, family values, identity, women's rights, children's rights, failing health systems, and general education - to name just a few! Because of the complexities this topic touches, I think it can become a difficult and muddled topic to explore without bias and with genuine curiosity

2) Being adopted has definitely affected my opinions on abortion - namely, I have genuinely stood on both sides of the issue. As a woman who is currently infertile/child free and an adoptee, the relevence is absolute. Furthermore, as I have unpacked and explored my experience of adoption, there have points in my life where I have been completely pro-life and other points where I would have said I was completely pro-choice. Now, I am pro-planned pregnancies and birth control education. Every person deserves a choice about being a parent or not. The best time to make that choice is before having unprotected sex.

3) I get the phrase "be glad you weren't aborted" at least once a month as a digital creator for adoptees. I'm used to it. I think the phrase demonstrates a huge lack of awareness of the realities of adoption and the realities of reproductive socio-economic context in general. It also betrays a clear insecurity when someone sends this comment my way. If I respond at all, I usually say, "It sounds like you might be uncomfortable with the realities of adoption. I encourage you to learn more."

4) The experience of being an adoptee has always been misrepresented and will continue to be misrepresented until adoptees are seen as the authorty on the topic. allowed to explore and use their voices and people listen to them. Adoption is currently framed as an adult's option, not the adoptee's reality. When people use adoption as a 'solution' to abortion or a 'choice' people should have, they demonstrate a gross lack of knowledge about the real impact of adoption - and often a secret selfish perspective that a person has a 'right' to be a parent or not be a parent - at the expense of a child's welfare

5) I felt pressured to have an opinion on adoption very early, as a child in a conservative Christian home, particularly in the month of October and January - pro life and march for life events. I also felt pressured to have an opinion on adoption as an adult navigating political environments - among friends who were very liberal and women's rights advocates online. That pressure continues and will never fully resolve in my lifetime, but it is the sort of pressure adoptees should embrace and explore - from BOTH sides of the issue.