The following interesting information is from an article called New Pregnancy Counseling & Adoption Services Website from LDS Media Talk.com which talks about the new ItsAboutLove.org site run by LDS Family Services. Here are a few of the statistics listed:
There were...
1.21 million abortions in 2005 (single women: 83% of all abortions)
1.6 million nonmarital births in 2006 (38.5% of all births)
Within 3 years after birth, 15% of dating parents marry; 21% of cohabitating parents marry
Only 1.6% are placed for adoption
Societal values overwhelmingly encourage unwed parents to choose single parenthood or abortion. Many programs, such as Planned Parenthood, exist to promote these values. With LDS Family Services, the Church has a program to counteract these values and to enable informed consideration of other options.
In 2005, nearly 37 % of all births were to single mothers. This resulted in over 1.5 million children being born to an unmarried mother.
In 2005 roughly 350,000 children were born to unmarried teen mothers. On the other hand, over 1 million children were born to single mothers ages 20 and over (23% vs. 77%). In other words, in the USA, non-marital births are not just a teen problem, and in fact, the age structure of unwed mothers has been getting older for several decades.
Not only are more single women getting pregnant, pregnant single women are becoming more interested in keeping their babies. Therefore, abortion rates are down and adoption rates are declining.
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Were you shocked to learn that only about 1% of crisis pregnancies end with an adoption?
Especially if you yourself are hoping to adopt, be proactive and do something to change that statistic by promoting adoption!
(You would be surprised at how many Latter-day Saints are uninformed about the Church's stance on open adoption and adoption itself.)
A good way to do this is to have an LDS Family Services representative come to your ward or branch and do a 5th Sunday Presentation on adoption. (I bet they would do a presentation for a combined Young Women/Young Men's or Singles Ward activity as well.)
We had them come to our ward last November for a 5th Sunday Presentation and it was wonderful! Call 1-800-537-2229 to schedule a day for them to come to your area. (Or contact me and I will set it up for you.)
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