When a woman in America faces an unplanned pregnancy, she generally has three options: She can keep the baby, put the child up for adoption, or get an abortion. But according to research from Dr. George Barna and the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, she usually only considers two.
"The research continues to show that when somebody finds out they're pregnant, they really look at two options; it's either abortion, or they're going to keep the child," relays John Knox of the Opt Institute – the non-profit research foundation that commissioned the study. "Adoption has just kind of been lost."
According to "Adoption & Its Competitors: Results of a National Survey Regarding Adoption in the United States in 2022," a woman with a crisis pregnancy tends to go to family for advice more often than any other source. 41% ask parents, grandparents, or another trusted family member. That, says Knox, is the good news.
"The influence of the Church was on such a small population, it was only on about 12% of influence," he continues. "There was greater influence by Planned Parenthood than there was by the Church."
With that in mind, Knox says the Church simply needs to do better.
"A lot of ministers that I meet, they don't want to talk about abortion because their congregation is split in terms of how they think about it," the Opt Institute founder laments. "They don't bring it up; it's not talked about in the Church. With adoption, they have a wonderful opportunity."
He adds that open adoption is the easiest way to adopt out a baby. In those cases, the birth mother is in control. She gets to decide who is going to raise her child, and she is able to have her own lawyer.
"We're hoping that more of the pregnancy centers will be able to point her in that direction," Knox concludes.
Live Action reported last November that pro-life pregnancy resource centers outnumber abortion facilities by a ratio of three to one.
