Reflecting on this year, a clear theme has been, "walking through the doors that God opens for us".
The 2023 book, 'Pro-Choice, Pro-Adoption. It’s Time for a Loving, Positive Response to Unplanned Pregnancy,' opened many doors.
Women facing unplanned pregnancy want and need a constructive solution. But it’s a difficult journey. Over the last 15 years, our work with birth moms across the country made us aware of the many obstacles they face, and helped us understand what changes they needed most.
My keynote at "Idaho Chooses Life" in December ‘23 led to new contacts in the Idaho State Capitol; we pivoted to POLICY work and dove in! The goals of our legislative work are:
1) increasing awareness of adoption as an option for women facing unplanned pregnancy, and 2) caring for the brave women who choose adoption, and choose parents, for their babies.
We proposed three bills in the 2024 legislative Session. With the support of Idaho Lt Governor Scott Bedke and Senator Julie VanOrden, those three bills passed into law!
One new law adds adoption education to middle & high school health/sex ed classes. This means young women can learn about this option at a calm time, not while in crisis. This law also calls for sharing local adoption resources and explaining the Safe Haven Act. The law also applies to universities' medical clinics: when they dispense contraception or test students for STDs, they’ll also hand out adoption information. This new law is the first of its kind in the country.
The next two bills passed in law help birth moms by
- improving birth mother care, streamlining the approval of her expenses, and
- decreasing the cost of adoption and increasing services by restricting unlicensed facilitators.
Idaho is becoming known as a leader in adoption law reform! This groundbreaking news was highlighted by EWTN TV on September 30.
One big lesson learned, being new to the world of politics and lobbying, was that it just takes one State passing a bill for other States to consider it. That’s another reason why the Idaho legislation is so important!
LiveAction's Lawmaker Summit in August provided the opportunity to share with other States. Unplanned Good worked with the organizers to add an adoption track to their conference lineup. During this track, which we sponsored, the amazing Dominique Brown told her story of choosing adoption. Then I explained our three new Idaho laws and we had a lively Q&A with the 70 lawmakers from 38 States. Now they are more likely to think about supporting adoption legislation because they understand it better. As a result, California, Oregon and New Hampshire are proposing our education bill in their January sessions.
We had more speaking opportunities this year, as well.
We were invited to a record number of podcast guest spots. Most of these are listed here on our speaking page.
In Canada, the Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform invited Unplanned Good to lead an adoption workshop on the final day of their summer interns’ time there. The themes we covered were understanding the steps in adoption, the challenges in the adoption process for children, birth parents and adopting parents, the different forms of adoption, and the misconceptions surrounding adoption. That was a lively conversation.
And that led to my first Canadian Podcast: Pro Life Guys. We talked not only about our ministry, Unplanned Good, but also the meaningful adoption experiences of the child, biological parents, and adopting families. Host Cameron Côté says, "It was a wonderful podcast!" Here's the link.
At CAFO this year, the Christian Alliance for Orphans conference, we led a birth mother panel. We’re bringing domestic infant adoption into the conversation through this national conference and honoring birth mothers at the same time. They are the true heroes.
Your support has enabled us to accomplish SO much in our adoption advocacy this year!
And, as we write this in early November, Terri has two podcasts and two speaking engagements on the calendar for this month alone! (More on that in the November newsletter).
All of us on the Board are honored to do the work of Unplanned Good. We are driven by a passion for our message. We – Terri and the Board – take no salaries for our work or our time. But spreading this message of adoption as an option requires funding.
For the first time in our history, the opportunities facing Unplanned Good FAR exceed both our funding and the number of hours in our day. If you can assist in either – donate to help cover our expenses or volunteer your time – we’d be most appreciative. Every dollar is put toward spreading our message about the beauty of adoption. Please go to www.unplannedgood.org/donate
We thank you for your interest, your encouragement and your support.
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We wish you a beautiful and blessed Christmas season!