When faced with an unexpected pregnancy, the pro-life movement encourages women and families to seek life-affirming resources that don’t include abortion. Some life-affirming resources for parents that are unable to raise their child include Safe Havens, foster care, and adoption. 

While Students for Life Action (SFLAction) and Students for Life of America (SFLA) recognize reforms are needed to better the foster care and adoption systems, these programs are still helping families who want to have children become parents and – most importantly – giving the chance for preborn babies to experience life. 

Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, even NBC News admits that adoption programs are seeing an increase. The outlet reported: 

“Some adoption agencies are seeing significant upticks in the number of infants placed in adoptive care, while others say it’s still too early to tell what role Dobbs is playing. 

“Kristen Hamilton, the director of communications at the nonprofit National Council for Adoption, one of the nation’s largest networks of adoption professionals, said the group has seen “a lot of variances” among adoption agencies in states with strict abortion laws.” 

The article also reported that another Texas-based agency (Gladney Center for Adoption) that “facilitates adoptions nationwide has seen a 30% increase in infant domestic adoptions in the past year. Inquiries from pregnant women who call to learn about their adoption options are up 55% [bold added].” 

This amazing news of adoption increasing carries throughout other states, too. NBC notes that another Florida adoption agency has seen an uptick in contact from women who are calling far earlier in their pregnancy since Roe, as opposed to second trimester contacts that the agency previously experienced.  

Bottom line: In a Post-Roe America, babies are being saved from the violence of abortion through life-affirming options like adoption, and the decisions to do so are happening much earlier in pregnancy. Major victory!  

And while SFLAction and SFLA often point out the lack of abortion reporting data in the United States, the adoption system would stand to benefit from a similar policy as there is no national reporting law for infant domestic adoptions. Such data would help us understand just how many lives are being changed through adoption. 

We do know, however, two special lives that were impacted by life-affirming decisions. SFLA staff members Mary-Logan Miske (California Regional Coordinator) and Kelsey Muse (Field Team Executive Assistant) spoke about their personal experiences of being adopted. 

Miske talks about her experience being raised by a single mom for 10 years with no biological father in the picture to then having her family made complete through adoption. “During my mother’s senior year of college, she experienced an unplanned pregnancy and despite pressures from her boyfriend to have an abortion, she chose life and raised me as a single mother for 10 years. In May of 2010, we met the man who would become her husband and my father. The day she got married, over a year later, was the same day I first called my mother’s new husband ‘dad’. It was not long after their wedding that he officially adopted me. We’re trained to think adoption is a horrible, tragic thing, but for me, it is what completed my family,” she said.

Miske makes it a point to talk about adoption in a positive light as she’s always believed God has a plan. In fact, the day she was adopted on July 26 is the feast day of St. Anne and Joachim, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the maternal grandparents of Jesus. St. Anne is the patroness of unmarried women, wives, expectant mothers, pregnancy, women in labor, grandmothers, and childless couples. St. Joachim is the patron of fathers and grandfathers. “There is a beauty in adoption,” she added, and when talking about her pro-life story, Miske said that it wasn’t just her experience that made her pro-life. 

“I had always known pro-life values, but when I learned more around 10-11 years old, I understood what an abortion exactly was,” she said. Miske has to defend her pro-life views on college campuses and in the community and is often asked loaded questions like “what are you doing for the foster care and adoption system.” 

(CLICK HERE to listen to SFLA-powered podcast by Christine Yeargin entitled ‘Stop Using Foster Care to Justify Abortion.’) 

While having an amazing story to tell people, Miske works hard to have meaningful conversations with even the most hostile people to ensure adoption is spoken about as a blessing. 

And Miske points out that many families who want to adopt can’t, defeating the myth that many children remain “unwanted” in the system. In fact, The Federalist reported “For every eligible baby, an invisible queue of 36 couples waits for the chance to take that baby home.” 

Fellow SFLA staffer Muse was privately adopted as a baby, and while she never met her birth mother, she expressed a deep gratitude for her choice of adoption. Muse explained that her adoptive parents, who battled infertility, only had three weeks to prepare for her arrival. 

“While I grew up with no communication with my biological family, I knew God used my birth mother to bring me in the world and put me with who I was meant to be with,” said Muse. Muse said God’s plan for her life growing up was clear, adding: “God can take something broken and make beauty from ashes. He can take a situation that wasn’t ideal and redeem it for good.” 

Muse has grown into this understanding and peace, but it wasn’t always as easy growing up with kids on the playground teasing that her mom wasn’t her “real” mom. She has more patience now working in the pro-life movement for those who push back.  

“I’ve never questioned the love I’ve been given, my place, or role where I fit in the family. I’ve always been very confident that it was meant to be this way and even forget I’m adopted,” she said. While her adulthood took her for unexpected turns, including meeting people in her biological family, Muse used the opportunity to build relationships and share why she’s pro-life, hoping to win them over. 

She might receive occasional hate for adoption on her TikTok, but Muse said, “Adoption was the thing that saved my life and the best thing that ever happened to me. The amount of love I’ve experienced in life proves it doesn’t matter if you’re born into a different family. You can experience love to the fullest. Having a chance at life is better than never being given the chance.” 

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