A Second Chance at Life

The Osbornes' two adopted kids went on a field trip they don't remember. It happened before they were born. They visited an abortion clinic.

Most kids don't get to go anywhere else once they've been on such a trip. But Michael and Andrew Osborne each went into a clinic and came out again, went on to see the light in a delivery room, and finally came home with their adoptive mom and dad.

And, strangely enough, in both cases the connection was made by the abortion clinic itself.

As Hilary Osborne tells the story, she and her husband had tried to conceive for eight grueling years. The infertility treatments were both physically taxing and emotionally draining. Yet they had hope, and they clung to the promise of Isaiah 59:21: "This is my covenant with them," says the Lord. "My Spirit who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your descendants from this time on and forever," says the Lord.

But that hope began to fade as the years slipped by, as disappointment followed disappointment. Finally, their doctor told the couple it was time to make a decision: They would have to submit to yet more radical procedures, or drop the pursuit entirely.

To the Osbornes the choice was clear.

"Who are you going to put your trust in?" Hilary asks. "God works through doctors, but that might not be in His plan this time."

Hilary was eager to look into adoption, but Marty needed more time. Deep inside, he says, he wasn't sure he could really love a child who was not his own flesh and blood. Then one Sunday Marty heard a sermon that gave him a new perspective.

The pastor was preaching on God's loving care, how those who love Him are in effect adopted by grace. If God so loves us, the pastor said, we should love others and be willing to adopt those children who need a home.

So it was that Marty and Hilary selected an adoption agency to represent them. The agency helped them write up their profile, a letter to prospective birth mothers describing the couple's background and interests.

In their profile, the Osbornes included a statement that their marriage was based on God's love and care. Such a proclamation might cause some birth mothers to reject them, the adoption caseworker advised. The Osbornes remained firm: The statement would stay.

Because the number of would-be parents is so high, and the number of available infants is so low, the agency said the Osbornes might enhance their chances by searching out birth mothers via some unconventional means.

Thus one Saturday in July 1996, Hilary sat down with copies of their profile on one side and the local Yellow Pages on the other. She began addressing envelopes. In all, she sent out more than 50, to offices throughout the Sterling Heights, Mich., area. She sent copies to every obstetrician in the book, and to every pregnancy care center. She also sent copies to all the area abortion clinics.

A different kind of choice

The Osbornes never heard from any of the obstetricians. They never heard from any pregnancy care centers. And naturally, they never heard from most of the abortion clinics. But Hilary addressed one of those envelopes to a place called Woman Care,' and that's where the story takes a turn.

Two days after mailing the letters, Hilary returned from work to find a message on her answering machine. Cindy' (not her real name) had been to the Woman Care clinic that day, but was too far along for an abortion; besides, she knew it wasn't what she wanted anyway.

Divorced and the mother of a preteen child, Cindy was looking for alternatives. Shannon, (not her real name) the clinic's office manager at the time, told Cindy about the Osbornes and gave her their number. Cindy phoned immediately.

Such referrals are not unusual for them, says Rosa (not her real name), the office manager at Woman Care. The abortion clinic is one of the first founded after Roe vs. Wade, in existence since 1973. Over the years, many hopeful adoptive couples have sent the clinic their profiles, Rosa says, and several adoptions have resulted.

How common is this kind of abortion-to-adoption story? No way to tell. If other abortion clinics are in fact adoption-friendly, they certainly haven't advertised it. It's a reasonable assumption that other would-be adoptive couples have had the same brainstorm Hilary Osborne did, and included clinics in their profile mailing list. But how many clinics keep these profiles rather than trash them, and how many bother to include adoption in their reproductive choices' counseling is impossible to know.

Offering formal adoption services within an abortion clinic is rare, but not unheard of. In Roanoke, Va., the Children's Home Society of Virginia last year began offering adoption counseling in conjunction with the local Planned Parenthood affiliate. More recently, and on a much larger scale, Chicago-area Planned Parenthood clinics announced a similar joint venture with a prominent adoption agency called The Cradle.

(The Roanoke cooperation, however, only produced three adoptions in its first year, and some pro-lifers have criticized the Chicago effort as a public-relations ploy, allowing Planned Parenthood to present abortion and adoption as morally equivalent.)

Reproductive Health Services in St. Louis once housed a licensed adoption agency. The clinic's name may sound vaguely familiar: the 1989 Supreme Court Webster decision derived from a Missouri case whose full title was Webster v. Reproductive Health Services.

Back then, B.J. Isaacson was executive director of Reproductive Health Services, where she worked to establish the adoption agency.

"It was one of the things of which I was most proud," she says, from her current office as executive director of the Indiana Primary Health Care Association. When an abortion clinic can offer adoption help, "it is a wonderful thing," she says.

When the clinic began offering formal agency services, the number of women choosing adoption increased, Isaacson says. Hilary's experience with a birth mother who walked into an abortion clinic too far along for an abortion is a situation Isaacson has seen countless times-perhaps a manifestation of denial.

"For the most part," she says, "women who were considering adoption were in fact too late for a legal abortion." Though Isaacson was proud of the clinic's adoption agency, "it was a financial disaster."

The agency had a policy of placing children with a family of the same race, and found that African American adoptive families were often put off by the necessary fees; it seemed to many of them like buying a child, reminiscent of slavery.

Reproductive Health Services ended up underwriting adoption services with clinic revenues, a situation that continued for three years until, to Isaacson's great regret, the agency closed. Isaacson says there has been some interest in similar adoption agencies at other abortion clinics, "but I don't think it's become the norm."

"You're getting a baby."

There wasn't much time before Cindy's due date. Hilary accompanied her to a couple of doctor's visits, always remembering the caseworker's advice not to pressure Cindy or appear over-anxious.

Cindy finally said to her with a smile, "Would you get excited already? You're getting a baby. I'm not changing my mind."

A few weeks later, Hilary was in the delivery room when Michael was born. Hilary and Marty held and kissed their new son, then discreetly stepped outside to give Cindy and her family time for a private and tearful goodbye. When the Osbornes returned it was time to take Michael into their arms, and into their family, forever.

"I will never, never forget our exit from that hospital room," Hilary says. "As I cradled Michael in my arms I hesitated at the doorway to take one last look at this woman of courage to forever etch her face in my heart."

As Michael's second birthday approached, the Osbornes decided to begin the adoption process again. One of Hilary's first phone calls was to her unlikely ally at the abortion clinic.

Shannon called a few weeks later.

"Her name is Rachel (not her real name)," Shannon said. "Call her now or you're going to lose her. She's just a month away from giving birth, and she wants to talk to somebody now."

Rachel was more reserved than Cindy, but no less resolved to place her child for adoption. Once again, the birth mother invited the hopeful parents to the hospital when she went into labor; once again the Osbornes took home a baby boy.

Andrew turns 2 years this month and Michael is nearly 4 years old, and the Osbornes hope to expand their family one more time. The profiles went out a couple of months ago, along with a phone call to the Woman Care clinic.

"We tell our sons that not only did we adopt them, but God chose them as well," Hilary says. "We say, He plucked you out in order to shelter you in our family. You were wanted, you were loved, and in His plan you were made just for us.'

"Of course, that's true not only about them, but about all Christians," she says. "So we tell the boys, Did you know Mommy and Daddy are adopted too?'"

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