Orphans and Lawyers

My Sunday Pioneer Press newspaper made an interesting "choice" regarding what story (an obituary actually) to lead with as a banner headline on today's front page which read:

"Dr. Jane E. Hodgson 1915 - 2006, Champion for a Woman's Right to Choose"

This story sought to commemorate the life of Dr. Hodgson, an OB-GYN doctor and "abortion-rights crusader, convicted of performing an illegal abortion in St. Paul (Minnesota) in 1970. The article noted that the US Supreme Court's "Roe vs. Wade" decision in 1973 overturned Dr. Hodgson's 1970 conviction.

Now this posting is NOT designed to generate flame mail from the pro-choice and pro-life camps in the USA but I do want to use this story to call on the Pioneer Press to complete one or two follow up stories (hopefully they won't wait until there is another obituary to publish). Given the surplus of foster children in our country and the overwhelming redtape involved in the adoption process -- which I have experienced second hand via two fraternity brothers and their wives' efforts to adopt children -- let's have newspapers also focus on foster children and the need for adoption reforms.

Regardless of what a woman chooses to do with her body and fetus I simply can not foresee a future free of orphans so let's help these children by reforming today's laws and support infrastructure via:

1.) A greater use of technology to speed background checks of candidate parents

2.) Less financial burden/overall costs to candidate parents so they have more funds available to raise the children

3.) Greater use of income tax credits and deductions to incentivize people to adopt and/or become foster parents

4.) Expand tax deduction levels to non-profit entities such as St. Jude's Ranch for Children and Boys Town which focus every penny they have on creating a better life for orphans.

5.) Call on America's legal community to expand their pro bono efforts working to speed adoptions and streamling the redtape involved. This is an ideal project for the Federalist Society, www.fed-soc.org, to take on given their membership's philosophical bias (my perception here) for building and supporting the traditional "nuclear family"

6.) Calling on the unborn/abortion organization leaders in this country such as -- NOW, NARAL, Operation Rescue, National Right to Life Committee, etc. -- to work cooperatively, crazy perhaps but the call for such action has to start somewhere so why not by me?, to reform our institutions to better serve children.

Good luck kids,

Todd