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Economy spurs inquiries about adoption, abortion to rise

A sad sidebar to our f'd economy.

MARENGO, Ill., May 20 (UPI) -- A Gallup Organization survey indicated 10 percent of married women are putting off pregnancy due to the current economy.

USA Today reported Joan Jaeger of The Cradle, a Chicago adoption agency, said 30 percent more women with unplanned pregnancies than a year ago seek information about adoption services.

Financial considerations have caused more abortion inquiries. Vicki Saporta of the National Abortion Federation, an abortion-provider advocacy organization, indicated her group's hotline activity has almost tripled within the past year. Many calls are from women in families experiencing job loss.

The unexpurgated Cindy McCain

By GottaLaff

Rumor has it that Mrs. Gramm-pa wasn't thrilled with today's New York Times piece. Can't imagine why. These excerpts also reveal Gramm-pa's cold, removed, unfeeling side. I highlighted that part in red, to set it apart.

Sorry this is so long, but when it comes to Her Royal McTongueyness, it's hard to know where to stop:

Mrs. McCain, 54, describes herself as her husband’s best friend, though for the last two decades they have mostly lived apart, she in Arizona, he in Washington. She initially seemed like an ideal political partner, giving Mr. McCain a home state, money and contacts that jump-started his career. But as the years passed, she also became a liability at times. She played a role in the Keating Five savings-and-loan scandal, and just as her husband was rehabilitating his reputation, she was caught stealing drugs from her nonprofit organization to feed her addiction to painkillers. She has a fortune that sets the McCains apart from most other Americans, a problem in a presidential race that hinges on economic anxieties. She can be imprecise: she has repeatedly called herself an only child, for instance, even though she has two half-siblings, and has provided varying details about a 1994 mercy mission to Rwanda. [...]

Carol McCain was still a presence on the social scene, working in the Reagan White House and as an events planner. Everyone knew her story: she had stood by her husband during his captivity in North Vietnam, never passing word of a debilitating car accident, only to discover, a few years after their reunion, that he was leaving her for a younger, richer woman. [...]

Recently, Mrs. McCain has called the separations painful, volunteering that she endured several miscarriages alone. She spent subsequent pregnancies mostly confined to home, Ms. Ross said, sitting in a favorite stuffed chair, watching videos. But she rarely complained. “Her attitude was as a good soldier,” Mr. Gullet said. [...]

Her husband was accused of improperly intervening on behalf of a donor, Charles Keating, whose failed savings and loan had cost taxpayers billions. Four other senators were implicated, and one Senate spouse: Mrs. McCain. [...]

When Mrs. McCain visited Bangladesh after a cyclone, she stopped at an orphanage founded by Mother Teresa, who was not, as the campaign has said, present for the visit. Mrs. McCain returned with two baby girls; Mr. Gullet later adopted one, and Mrs. McCain informed her husband on landing that they would adopt the other. [...]

She had used the drugs, first given for back pain, to numb herself during the Keating Five investigation, she confessed to Newsweek magazine. “The newspaper articles didn’t hurt as much, and I didn’t hurt as much,“ she wrote in an essay. “The pills made me feel euphoric and free.” [...]

In interviews, some of Mrs. McCain’s statements seem questionable. She often tells of how she moved to California, leaving her children behind, for four months in 2004 to recover from a stroke that left her unable to walk or speak. But news reports from the time indicate she had few discernible impediments. She gave interviews four days afterward, attended a baseball game with her husband and a reporter several weeks later, and spoke at a Tempe, Ariz., Chamber of Commerce event. “One month out, I feel wonderful,” she told the audience. The McCain campaign declined to resolve the discrepancy. [...]

Rick Davis, a contentious figure in the McCain camp because of his lobbying ties, emerged as campaign manager, in part because Mrs. McCain, with whom he spent months traveling and fund-raising, backed him.

The ideal First Family.

McSybil "rethinks" gay adoption

By GottaLaff

Don't get me started. Too late:

Advocates for gay and lesbian families are denouncing Sen. John McCain, an adoptive father himself, for opposing adoptions by gays, which prompted his presidential campaign to clarify Tuesday that he does not seek a federal ban on the practice. Only one state, Florida, outlaws gay adoptions, which have become commonplace in much of the nation.

Way to be inclusive and compassionate. McCain:

"I think that we've proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don't believe in gay adoption," McCain replied.

McCain then remarked that he and his wife, Cindy, were proud to be adoptive parents of a daughter born in Bangladesh, and he encouraged others to adopt. Asked if those adopting should be a "traditional couple," McCain answered, "Yes."

We don't see many photos of his Bangladesh-born daughter, do we? And what was that about "both" parents are important? What, a gay couple consists of a single parent?

The responses were condemned by gay and lesbian groups.

"He's completely out of touch," said Kara Suffredini, public policy director for the Family Equality Council. "There's no reason, except for the sake of red meat for his base, to throw up screens in the way of children in foster care getting homes."

Jody Huckaby, executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said McCain's comments were especially dismaying because more than 100,000 children are in foster care waiting to be adopted.

But this is simply McHomophobic's "personal view", his campaign sputtered, nothing more.

Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, said McCain "needs to read the research and rethink his comments*."

Adam, you mistakenly assume J Sid thinks.

Recent national polls suggest that support for the concept of gay adoption is growing. A 2006 poll by the Pew Research Center found a near-even split on the issue; a 2007 poll by CNN and Opinion Research Corp. said 57 percent of respondents felt gays should have the right to adopt, while 40 percent said they shouldn't. [...]

McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, supports adoption rights for gays and lesbians.

This just in, via Bucky-- McFlippy "*rethinks his comments":

"McCain could have been clearer in the interview in stating that his position on gay adoption is that it is a state issue, just as he made it clear in the interview that marriage is a state issue. He was not endorsing any federal legislation. McCain's expressed his personal preference for children to be raised by a mother and a father wherever possible. However, as an adoptive father himself, McCain believes children deserve loving and caring home environments, and he recognizes that there are many abandoned children who have yet to find homes. McCain believes that in those situations that caring parental figures are better for the child than the alternative."

There he goes again, going all Obama on us. However, it's not enough, because saying that it's a "state issue" is a cop out. And how big of him to concede that gay couples are a solution of last resort.

UPATE: From Commenter Bucky, a gay father of an adopted child. Bucky, you are one of the best people I've ever met. This quote from your comment helps to prove that:

So it's okay for The Gays to adopt the kids that nobody else wants. And let's be clear, nobody else is interested in these kids because they have so many problems. These kids are the ones that need parents with the best skills and support. But you want to give these kids to gay people that you think are unfit to be parents.

Let's forget what that says about how you feel about gay poeple, John. What the f*** does that say about how you feel about children?