A baby-dropping proposal

On my way into work this morning, I heard this news story about a local college student named Holly Ashcraft who's been charged with murder for the death of her baby, which she abandoned in a trash bin earlier this week.

My first thought was that it was a senseless and tragic death; bad enough to be born as an unwanted child, but how much more depressing is it to be tossed like so much refuse and left to die?

My second thought was that this is another case where the "pro-life" movement has backfired; if Ms. Ashcraft had gotten an abortion early in her pregnancy, this whole mess could have been avoided. I don't know why Ms. Ashcraft didn't get an abortion, but I'll place good money that social pressures against abortions figured into it.

(And yes, we can go back further and wonder why Ms. Ashcraft didn't practice birth control, or chose abstenance, or whatever. But then we can keep going back further and further until the exercise becomes meaningless, so let's not.)

My third thought turned, as it often does in situations like this, to why the pro-life people can't put their commitment where their mouths are. "Self," I said to myself, "wouldn't it have been cool if a life-affirming pro-life family could have swooped to Ms. Ashcraft's aid and selflessly volunteered to raise this child, so it could live a happy and fulfilling life instead of tossed in a dumpster? I mean, they are supposed to be pro-life people, so they should leap at such an opportunity to spend 18 years of their lives raising a stranger's child, right?" (Yes, kids, that was sarcasm.)

And then the light bulb lit.

Why isn't there a registry of pro-life families who have pledged to take in unwanted newborns and raise them as their own? Then when a woman finds herself pregant with an unwanted child and no way out (whether she's opposed to abortion, or can't get a safe abortion, or whatever), she can just contact this registry and let them know she has a little parcel on the way that needs a loving home. After the baby is born, the new child can be whisked off to the open arms of a pro-life family that's just thrilled with the opportunity to save a newborn child.

Yeah, there are a truckload of legal and logistical issues to work out, but nothing that can't be solved by a couple of lawyers and planners. You can certainly handle the logstics easily with the internet; open a site, call it BabyDrop.com, "where your dropped babies are caught in loving arms," and let people sign up. It'd be like a matchmaking service for parents; preggo gals can type in a zip code and get a list of nearby recipient families, then just make a phone call. Or it can be done anonymously -- the mother and the family would never even have to meet, and all that's needed is a BabyDrop.com intermediary (called a "stork," natch ) to do the delivery. You might even want to filter families and moms by race, religion, and/or socio-economic class, in case people want to make sure dropped babies are matched with "compatable" homes.

This is such a win-win idea that I'm surprised (no, not really) that anti-abortion groups haven't jumped on it already. Considering all the hay that James Dobson and other conservatives have made over the recent Supreme Court nominees ("We can't support Harriet Miers because she won't pledge to overturn Roe v. Wade the first chance she gets!"), it should be easy to get their buy-in on this. Recruiting familes should be easy -- just send someone to the nearest anti-abortion rally with a clipboard and some forms. If nothing else, I'm sure Michael Moore would do it, just for the grins.

(Of course, I'm assuming there isn't such a service already. If there were, they've done a lousy job at getting the word out.)

So, pro-life zealots, eager to put your money (and your home, and 18 years of your life) where your mouth is? Sign up today, and let total strangers drop their newborns into your loving arms! I'll even volunteer to build a BabyDrop.com site for free, just to show my commitment to this modest proposal...