Compromise - What are you willing to pay for?

[Sleepless_in_Jefferson_County]

In civil society, one side (conservative or liberal) should not have to make ALL the concessions or have an all or nothing mindset. At what point did making a concession to ultimately get most of what you want become a sign of weakness or an unthinkable sin? In another thread 3 trains of thought sprung up on abortion and what we should be spending money on and why.

1. Defund Planned Parenthood - score political points on the right, restrict access to reproductive health care without actually eliminating abortion.

2. Promote reproductive education/access to contraception in schools - morality issues, may actually prevent unwanted pregnancies.

3. Adopt all the unwanted kids instead of abort - great idea in theory, not always fiscally possible.

So what are we willing to fund, what are we willing to compromise on since parts of these ideas are great, but none of them stand alone. Oh and neither side should just "get everything they want" with no regard for the other side.

 

[Kenny56]

1. I do not want my tax dollars going towards abortions of the birth control variety. That is pretty simple. If PP want's my money, stop abortions of a non-medical emergency/incest variety. The rest of PP I have no issue with.
2. I agree. we need to do a better job of education youth on birth control.
3. The amount of money we spend on stupid crap is a drop in the bucket compared to what would be required to house unwanted youth. If I am not mistaken, adoption is becoming increasingly popular between couples of all variety. I would rather have a kid live a not so great youth life than to have it's neck snapped. We are neglecting babies the right to make a difference in the future.

 

[Neutron Monster]

The majority of adoptions in the US are from the foster system, not babies.

There are <100,000 adoptions of babies/infants in the US each year. There is nowhere near the demand or infrastructure to take care of 1,000,000 additional births a year

 

[bullitpdq68]

The majority of adoptions in the US are from the foster system, not babies.

There are <100,000 adoptions of babies/infants in the US each year. There is nowhere near the demand or infrastructure to take care of 1,000,000 additional births a year

Neutron, what kind of funding do you think it would cost to put in place additional support and things for that? I mean some of the aborted babies are severely deformed fetishes. I wonder if there are any statistics out there on how many of those 1 million would be healthy and how many would need expensive and special care for life?

Currently right now being a foster parent I can tell you the system is under funded by millions of dollars. And because of that it is undermanned that is why we have so many deaths within the system and so many abused children go back to abusive parents. As there is not enough foster homes good foster homes!!

 

[Neutron Monster]

It's estimated that health issues of the fetus are a cause of 10%-15% of abortions. Rape is around 1% (that likely wouldn't be made illegal). See https://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3711005.pdf

 

[bullitpdq68]

The majority of adoptions in the US are from the foster system, not babies.

There are <100,000 adoptions of babies/infants in the US each year. There is nowhere near the demand or infrastructure to take care of 1,000,000 additional births a year

I wonder how many newborns go into foster homes as newborns but are not adopted until 2 as usually it takes up to two years to TPR the biologically parents in most cases sometimes longer. So those numbers could be off based on when the child is actual adopted?

 

[Neutron Monster]

I suspect you are correct on that point as well, but I have no data to point to

 

[Sleepless_in_Jefferson_County]

Someone explain to me why legal adoption is so expensive? That is a massive roadblock. If people are actually concerned with getting kids adopted, lower the restrictive price tag.

 

[Neutron Monster]

http://www.kevindhendricks.com/2007/09/14/why-is-adoption-so-expensive/ No idea how true this is but it made some sense to me.

When you have a 10k tax credit already, cost likely isn't the major reason why we don't have a higher adoption rate.

 

[Neutron Monster]

To add to that, if people were dying to raise kids but cost were stopping them they could be a foster parent and get paid for it. That system isn't exactly overflowing with good homes.

 

[bullitpdq68]

http://www.kevindhendricks.com/2007/09/14/why-is-adoption-so-expensive/ No idea how true this is but it made some sense to me.

When you have a 10k tax credit already, cost likely isn't the major reason why we don't have a higher adoption rate.

so true cost is not a major factor.

All three that we adopted were foster first, we paid nothing out of pocket for the adoption. But had we needed too our place of employment would have assisted with that and I am sure other places of business will do that too, as it seems pretty common for the places I have worked if you look into it. However that being said one was a new born and you don't get time off for fostering a newborn, adoption yes, but not foster so my wife had to take off unpaid for 5 weeks to stay home and bond, but well worth it! But that is another problem in itself as most employers treat foster and adoption different that really needs to be addressed to help more foster families and foster kids, so that those that want to become foster families can have more assistants and freedom at work. I cannot tell you how many days I had to take off for court, therapy and court ordered visit it was a lot. But the two years waiting for the parents to be TPR was brutal. Having to let the kids go back to the biological parents for visits to see if the family could be put together was heart breaking at times and the wait oh don't get me started on the emotional toll for that. So most people cannot handle that and I will be honest it is emotionally hard especially as you get attached and bonded to those kids wondering if you will get to adopt them.

Really the reason why we have 400,000 in care is because they are foster and they have to go threw the system and TPR for up to two years before you can adopt. That is hard on those who might find themselves getting emotional attached to these kids and invested in them. Only to find out they are going back to the biological mom/dad. So that puts alot of unwanted kids in the foster care system and some of these kids have been through things that will scare them for life and hard to raise.