I agree with Daniel Zene Crowe that free maternity care and government subsidies may decrease abortions. However, his further suggestion that a $10,000 Oregon tax credit for adoptive parents when the child graduates from high school would decrease abortions is just flat wrong. (“Opinion: Working through the abortion question together as Oregonians,” 7/17/22). Women don’t have abortions because they can’t find anyone to take the child off their hands. According to the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “a woman who puts her newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home.” The mantra “adoption, not abortion” does not resonate with most women in crisis pregnancies because they instinctively know the massive and life-altering difference between having a baby and giving it away and not having the baby.

Crowe and the anti-abortion justices appear unaware of the destructive effects of attempting to solve social problems by removing babies from mothers with limited resources. Adoption rates are an accurate measure of the civility of a society; more civilized societies help mothers keep and nurture their children. Less civilized societies treat babies as commodities, promoting their redistribution to those with greater resources. High abortion rates also reflect a less civilized society. It means that women have less control over their sexuality (the power to say “no” and to access birth control) and that support for women with unplanned pregnancies is lacking.