Free Republic

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - A South Carolina couple sued doctors and state social workers on Tuesday for subjecting a 16-month-old child born with both male and female genitalia to what they say was medically unnecessary and irreversible sex-assignment surgery while the toddler was in foster care. The state and federal lawsuits - believed by the couple's lawyers to be the first of their kind in the United States - argue that doctors should not have performed surgery to make the child's body appear to be female when they knew they could not predict how gender would develop. The child,...

Cleveland, OH (LiveActionNews) — Kidnap and rape victim Amanda Berry is a recent high-profile example of a woman’s love for a child conceived in rape. Her fellow kidnap and rape victim, Michelle Knight, is reportedly another example. Michelle’s brother Freddie tells the New York Daily News that Michelle wants to be reunited with the son she had before she was abducted by Castro. He was born after Michelle was gang-raped by boys at school prior to her abduction. “She was a delightful girl, outgoing,” Deborah Knight, 62, told the Daily News. “She was very helpful. We just had a lot...

In 2011, a little boy became the victim of gay adoption laws. Perhaps he was difficult to adopt due to having a substantial speech impediment and only began communicating at age three with sign language. This is the vulnerable population of children that are considered ‘un-adoptable’, perhaps. These are the poor children whom the gay community say they are ‘rescuing’ from adoption homes. These are the children that are being experimented on by our Godless society today. “Let’s see if two lesbians or two gay men can raise a child as well as a proper male/female married couple. This grand...

DUNSEITH, N.D.—Few mothers are likely to get more cards, flowers and phone calls this Sunday than Joyce Dumont. Mrs. Dumont, 77 years old, a Native American of the Chippewa tribe, is at the root of a family tree so tangled that it seems more like a forest. By her reckoning, she has had 69 kids—including six through childbirth, five stepchildren, 11 who were adopted, several dozen foster children and a few who simply moved in when they had no better place to go. Her latest three were adopted by Mrs. Dumont and her husband, Buddy, also 77, over the past...

Any young woman or teen who gets pregnant out-of-wedlock faces three choices: abort her baby; keep her baby, or release her baby for adoption. How she decides will impact her and her baby and in many cases it will affect the man who fathered the child as well. Too often, he is left out of the decision process, and just as often the young woman will make her decision without fully exploring the option of adoption. Studies that compare birth mothers who keep their babies and become single parents with those who release their babies for adoption show that the...

MOUNT HOLLY, NJ (CBS) – A United States Army major and his wife are facing charges for the alleged abuse of their three adopted children, including one who died in May 2008. A 17-count indictment released Tuesday charges Army Maj. John Jackson, and his wife, Carolyn, with neglect, abuse, cruelty, and torture. The couple, who live in Mount Holly, are behind bars. From about August 2005 until April 23, 2010, Carolyn Jackson, 35, and John E. Jackson, 37, formerly of the Picatinny Arsenal Installation in Morris County, NJ reportedly abused the three juveniles by breaking their bones, denying them medical...

Former GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., now supports the rights of gay Americans to adopt children, though he still believes marriage “is between a man and a woman.” In a town hall meeting with constituents in Wisconsin on Monday, the House Budget Committee chairman said he has changed his mind on the adoption issue, even though his opinions on other aspects of gay rights have remained unchanged. To date, two Republican senators — Rob Portman of Ohio, who had been in the mix for Mitt Romney’s No. 2 spot, and Mark S. Kirk of Illinois — have...

Never mind! Paul Ryan has changed his view on adoption by same-sex partners, he told a town-hall audience in Wisconsin on Monday. In 1999, Ryan voted against gay couples, but now says he has reversed course on the issue. “I’d vote differently these days,” he said. “I do believe that if there are children who are orphans who do not have a loving person or couple, I think if a person wants to love and raise a child, they ought to be able to do that.” On same-sex marriage, he says he’s still opposed.

Thanks to the publication of Kathryn Joyce’s new book, The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption (excerpted here in Mother Jones, and Ms. Joyce is interviewed here at NPR), there’s been an online wave of criticism/examination of Evangelicals’ so-called orphan fever. To some, conservative Christians are incentivizing child-trafficking, engaging in a form of cultural imperialism by yanking children from their native cultures and evangelizing them into Christianity, soothing pro-life conscienses wounded by lack of concern for babies after they’re born, and trying to engage in charity without adjusting underlying world views about social justice and the...

PARIS, April 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Ignoring fierce protests that have attracted up to 1.4 million demonstrators in favor of the traditional family, the French Senate voted on Wednesday to approve legislation permitting homosexual couples to adopt children, following its decision Tuesday to approve the creation of "homosexual marriage," according to reports in the local media. The so-called Taubira Law, named after the bill's author, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, will soon pass back to the nation's lower legislative house, the National Assembly, to receive a second vote before it becomes law. Legislators from the more conservative Union for a Popular...

PARIS, April 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - According to the organization Mayors for Children, approximately 14,900 French mayors will refuse to celebrate "marriages" between couples of the same sex. More than 20,000 mayors and assistant mayors have signed a petition stating, "I am opposed to the bill that opens marriage and the adoption of children by two people of the same sex." "Mayors for Children" A survey conducted by the French polling agency IFOP offers confirmation of the startling figures, estimating that 52 percent of the country's mayors are opposed to the bill. In France, mayors conduct civil marriage ceremonies or...

Vladimir Putin MOSCOW, April 2, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Homosexual couples from abroad will not be allowed to adopt Russian children under new rules backed by President Vladimir Putin. The move follows the implementation of a new law on January 1st preventing adoption of Russian children by American couples. Putin has asked for amendments to be drafted to the current adoption laws by the Ministry of Education and Science and Supreme Court, Izvestia newspaper reports. The draft legislation is expected by July 1st. The move is supported by children’s rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov who recently said he would do all he...

President Putin is against the adoption of Russian orphans by foreign same-sex couples, Russian media reveal. The government and the Supreme Court have reportedly been requested to come up with amendments to the law by July 1. Most likely the order will be fulfilled by the Ministry of Education and Science, which deals with issues concerning orphans and adoptions, according to Izvestia daily. But the ministry says it has not yet received instructions on the matter. Tensions over the issue arose in mid-February, after the French National Assembly approved a sweeping bill to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples...

The Russian president has opposed the adoption of Russian orphans by LGBT foreign couples, and has instructed the government and the Supreme Court to prepare changes to existing law before July 1. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order will most likely be fulfilled by the Ministry of Education and Science, which is currently dealing with issues concerning orphans and adoptions, Izvestia daily reported. The ministry has not yet commented on the news, saying that Putin’s instructions had not yet reached their office. Tensions over the issue arose in mid-February, after the French National Assembly voted to legalize adoptions by same-sex couples....

A boy sexually abused by his adoptive father and his gay partner was labelled an ‘unruly child’ by social workers who ignored his complaints for years, a damning report has revealed. They sent Andy Cannon, now 23, back to the couple’s home despite his protests of abuse, praising the gay man who adopted him as a ‘very caring parent’. The report accuses Wakefield social services, in Yorkshire, of ‘folly and gross misjudgment’. Mr Cannon, who was wrongly diagnosed with mental disorders and prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, believes he would have been listened to sooner if his adoptive father wasn’t gay.

Embattled polo mogul John Goodman can't adopt his 43-year-old girlfriend after all, an appeals court ruled Wednesday. The adoption would have enabled girlfriend Heather Hutchins to claim a third of a $300 million trust fund established for Goodman's two children, both younger than 18. The 49-year-old multimillionaire's bid to assume parental custody of Hutchins was voided because he didn't notify his ex-wife Carroll Goodman, the mother of the children, until after the adoption appeals process had passed in January 2012, according to a Third District Court of Appeal ruling.

Thanks to Kathryn Lopez for highlighting this interview in USA Today with Archbishop Cordileone on gay marriage. Anybody who wishes to enter into a debate about gay marriage with friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, or anyone else should read this interview and memorize each and every answer by the Archbishop. This, folks, is how it is done. Do not accept their premises at all. This is not a debate about tolerance or a live and let live mentality. If it was, some form of civil union or benefit structure would have been sufficient. This is about criminalizing the opposing views and...

CHELSEA Clinton is planning to adopt a baby from Africa. The former First Daughter, 33, de­cided on the surprising maternity plan after watching both parents — Bill and Hillary Clinton — battle potentially deadly health problems while she’s struggled to get pregnant. “After years of worrying that she’d lose her dad Bill to a heart attack, Chelsea flipped out when her mom Hillary was hospitalized with a blood clot near her brain,” a source told American tabloid the National Enquirer. “The clot was successfully treated and Hillary is out of the woods, but the incident made Chelsea realize that life...

Big hearted Chelsea Clinton plans to adopt a baby from Africa, the Enquirer has learned exclusively.

Former Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove says he now regrets signing a state law in 2000 that bans same-sex couples from adopting children. Musgrove, an attorney, served one term as governor, from January 2000 to January 2004. The Democrat first reported his change of heart in an essay this week on the Huffington Post. He also said same-sex couples should have the right to marry.

DENVER, March 14, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The archbishop of Denver has warned the passage of a civil unions bill recognizing homosexual partnerships in similar terms to marriage threatens he conscience rights of Coloradans, imperils Catholic charitable efforts, and harms the right of Colorado's children to have a mother and a father. Yesterday the Colorado House of Representatives voted 39-26 to approve a bill recognizing homosexual civil unions. The legislation, which provides all the rights of marriage, had previously passed the Democrat-dominated Senate in February. It will now go to the desk of Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper, who is expected to...

The Gatestone Institute reported yesterday that the government of Spain has agreed with the government of Morocco that Moroccan children adopted by Spanish families will be required remain culturally and religiously Muslim.  The Spanish government will create a "control mechanism" that will allow Moroccan religious authorities to monitor the children until they reach the age of 18 to see that they have not converted to Christianity. Spain agreed to these conditions so that Spanish families who are in the process of adopting Moroccan children can bring them to Spain. Morocco has a high rate of child abandonment, and Spain has been...

First-- thanks to all of you for your wonderful warm wishes and congrats when I posted the first thread. As you can imagine, it has been a bit overwhelming, but I shared many private messages with many of you. Everyone has been just top notch with advice and sharing great personal stories of their own experiences with adoption. THANK YOU! Everything is going GREAT! We talk via email, FB, or phone almost everyday. There have been ZERO issues. Her family and mine are very supportive. Sometimes she calls just to vent about silly things. We send videos back and forth...

Many of us have questioned what caused Roberts to switch his vote on ObamaCare at the last minute, as reported by CBS, and doing so, so late that the Conservative Justices were forced to rewrite their majority opinion to be minority dissent. These facts may answer that question. In 2000 Justice Roberts and his wife Jane adopted two children. Initially it was apparent that the adoptions were "from a Latin American country", but over time it has become apparent that the adopted children were not Latin American, but were Irish. Why this matters will become evident. In 2005 the NY...

DAYTON, Ohio — An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to raping a boy authorities say was brought by the child’s adoptive father to his home, where both men raped the boy. The Montgomery County prosecutor’s office said Friday that 32-year-old Patrick Rieder (REE’-dur) pleaded guilty to 27 counts including rape of a child under 13 and pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor. The prosecutor says Rieder was sentenced to 25 years to life and labeled a sex offender. Authorities say the boy’s adoptive father gave Rieder and another man access to the boy. The adoptive father has pleaded guilty...

The way to end abortion is to show women that abortion strips them of freedom. Abortion does not preserve choice; abortion pollutes choice. Not All Free Choices Are Beneficial Killing in the name of freedom does not preserve one’s own freedom. Women nearly always have the freedom to kill; they do not always have the right to kill. Pro-choice activists tell women that in order to preserve their freedom, they must defend their right to kill their children. But the question is not whether an act is committed freely, but whether it is an objectively good act. If you...

And baby makes seven! Rosie O’Donnell surprised fans on Tuesday when she tweeted a photo of herself and wife Michelle Rounds holding their brand new bundle of joy. “we r thrilled to announce the arrival of r daughter Dakota - #withloveandthanks – AMEN,” O’Donnell wrote beneath the pic, which features the two women cradling the tiny infant. The couple adopted the baby this week. Back in January, O’Donnell told Dr. Oz on his daytime talk show that Rounds, now 41, was “trying to get pregnant.” After that interview, however, Rounds was diagnosed with desmoids tumors, a rare condition that...

I gave away a little girl for adoption over 22 years ago. I have tried to find her, but she found me first. Needless to say, this has been the BEST CHRISTMAS in my life ever. Bad news- she had a daughter of 6 months old pass away in November. I never got to know about her before her passing. The good news. I am a grandma! I have a grandson who just so happens to share the same birthday as my son! She has forgiven me. And wants to meet me. Choosing LIFE is nothing to brag about. A...

The Russian Orthodox church has been attacked for supporting a new law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, at the end of a year that saw it plagued by scandal and accusations of collusion with an increasingly authoritarian Kremlin. Father Vsevolod Chaplin, a high-ranking priest and a spokesman for the church, said the law was "a search for a social answer to an elementary question: why should we give, and even sell, our children abroad?" Speaking to Interfax, a state news agency, last week, Chaplin said the path to heaven would be closed to children adopted by foreigners. "They won't...

Lawmakers in Moscow moved to ban Americans from adopting Russian children Friday, as they passed a bill that imposes a series of sanctions on U.S. interests, state media reported. Russia is one of the top sources of international adoptions to the United States. The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, adopted the bill on its third reading, the state-run RAPSI news agency reported. The measure will now move to the Federation Council and, if approved there, will go to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law, the news agency said. The legislation could affect hundreds of American families...

Any Day Now opens in a bar where Alan Cumming as Rudy, a drag queen, is singing the ’70s disco hit “Come to Me.” Across the room, Rudy spots the handsome man of his dreams and seduces him with his performance. The dreamboat is a closeted district attorney named Paul, played by Garret Dillahunt of Raising Hope. Yet Any Day Now is about so much more. Although it’s a period piece, the inspiring story couldn’t be more contemporary as Rudy and Paul fight to adopt a special needs child severely neglected by his drug-addicted mother while they have to hide...

This Christmas Dr. Russell D. Moore might call upon us to think of Joseph, Jesus’ father, and his role in the nativity story. Dr. Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, argues that Joseph’s decision to be a father to Jesus reflects God and the way he treats his Christian children. “Joseph acts as a father when he takes Mary into his family, when he takes her as his wife,” said Dr. Moore at a recent Family Research Council event. “He acts fatherly toward Jesus in terms of identity (naming him),” Dr. Moore continues,...

A Texas man is battling for custody of his first-born daughter after his wife successfully gave her up for adoption without telling him - to a family who now refuses to return the girl. Terry Achane, 31, a drill instructor in South Carolina, says it was just days after he left his pregnant wife for his new job out of state that she quietly signed over their unborn baby to a family of seven in Utah. His newborn baby, whom he had wanted to name Teleah, was given to Jared and Kristi Frei, who now say the girl is theirs...

Abandoned on a door step in the dead of night, these are the desperate notes pinned to babies by poor and often unmarried mothers, pleading for someone to care for their child. The heartbreaking letters became part of records at the New York Foundling Asylum in the mid-19th century. In October 1869, a group of nuns renovated a brownstone at 17 East 12th Street in Manhattan into the Foundling Asylum

I was born in Abadan, Iran, sometime in 1946 or 1947. In those days, the record-keeping wasn’t all that good. When I was nine months old, my grandmother took me from my mother and gave me to my aunt. She took me to Tehran by train, and I was then supposed to become my aunt’s child. My mother was married at age 9 to a man twenty years older. She was constantly pregnant and had many children, some dying right away. My father totally dominated her; she made no decisions of her own. Giving me to my aunt was the...

Evangelical Christians, it seems, are adopting embryos at an increasing rate, and the secular media are noticing the trend. Last week, religion journalist Krista Kapralos wrote about the theological and missional underpinnings of born-again believers giving birth to "unused embryos." In a few minutes, I plan to talk to her about whether we should see this as something God calls us to do. I mentioned, awhile back, that I had received some kick-back from someone who opposed any talk of so-called "snowflake adoption," and objected to such an adoption happening in his extended family. How, he wondered, could I support...

“A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. The teacher who has come to the end of his subject, who has no living traffic with his knowledge but merely repeats his lessons to his students, can only load their minds. He can not quicken them.” – TagoreA vibrant education sector is fundamental for developing human capital within countries. With an active and transformative education policy and a supportive infrastructure, the development of a knowledge-based population can apply itself to sustained and...

Teaching is a timeless profession. It is the basis of all other professions. Good teachers plant seeds that make good doctors, good accountants, good public servants, good statesmen, good taxi drivers, and good astronauts. When former students return to see me over the years, my heart fills up in the knowledge that I have been part of a wonderful accumulation of experiences that followed them through life. - Mary Bicouvaris.In the education sector, there has been a growing movement toward infusing 21st century skills into teaching. Driven by organizations around the world, this trend is more than a passing fad,...

A man named Ken recently called in to a Washington, DC radio talk show discussing the question of abortion after rape. In the midst of a politically charged discussion, his personal story caught the host off guard. Ken explained that he was adopted as an infant, and at age 30, located his birth mother and learned the circumstances of his conception.“Her story was that she was hit over the head with a baseball bat and was raped at 15. So she went away to Catholic Charities, had me, made the brave decision to keep me — and, well, keep me...

The embryo was frozen in liquid nitrogen when Gabriel and Callie Fluhrer found it. They didn’t know whether that embryo would grow to be a boy or a girl, or whether it would even grow at all. But to the Fluhrers, it was worth the risk. That tiny collection of cells was a baby, they believed. And if they didn’t pluck it from the warehouse where it had been stored since its biological parents decided they didn’t need or want it any longer, it was likely to die. “If we’re going to stand against abortion, it’s not simply picketing a...

My mouth dropped open, gaping in shock, as I sat in the prayer room readying myself to pray for the orphans and fatherless and then saw the story. Christian Broadcasting Network’s Pat Robertson had criticized some types of adoption. In a viewer question from a woman who had adopted three children internationally, Robertson’s advice as to why men seemed to lose interest when they found out she adopted her children, said: “A man doesn’t want to take on the United Nations, and a woman has all these various children, blended family, what is it – you don’t know what problems...

In a recent broadcast of The 700 Club, a woman sent in a question about a man who wouldn’t marry her because she has children who were adopted internationally. If they were her “own” biological children, he would have no problem, she said. But because they were adopted, he saw too much risk. Host Pat Robertson’s female co-host bristled and said he was acting like a “dog.” Robertson disagreed. He said the man “didn’t want to take on a United Nations,” and that, after all, you never know about adopted children; they might have brain damage and “grow up weird.”I...

I am a complete novice to posting a vanity so please forgive me for any and all mistakes. Veteran IDDs (Improvised Explosive Device Dogs) have served our Country and Marine Corps honorably. Due to the reduction in forces in Afghanistan, many of these wonderful dogs are eligible for retirement and adoption. The majority of the dogs are 3-7 year old pure breed Labrador Retrievers that are black, yellow, or chocolate. Spaying and neutering has already been done. They are highly trained, healthy, happy, and will make terrific pets or hunting buddies. The adoption process is not quick but the dog's...

Quite simply, growing up with gay parents was very difficult, and not because of prejudice from neighbors. People in our community didn’t really know what was going on in the house. To most outside observers, I was a well-raised, high-achieving child, finishing high school with straight A’s. Inside, however, I was confused. When your home life is so drastically different from everyone around you, in a fundamental way striking at basic physical relations, you grow up weird. I have no mental health disorders or biological conditions. I just grew up in a house so unusual that I was destined to...

We adopted two kittens today,a boy and a girl. They're black-and-white and only 3 months old. Now we just have to pick names for them.

The Tennessee woman who ended her adoption of a 7-year-old Russian boy by putting him on a plane to Moscow by himself lost her bid Friday to keep from paying $150,000 in child support. Torry Hansen made her first court appearance Friday in a case that began in April 2010 when she sent Artyom Saveliev away from her home in Shelbyville with a letter that said he had violent behavior problems and she no longer wanted to be his mother. Criminal charges were never filed but the Seattle-based adoption agency she used, the World Association for Children and Parents, sued...

The Russian government officials arrived with a Moscow television crew in tow at the gates of a ranch for adopted children in remote northwestern Montana and demanded to be let inside. Among them was Russian children rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov, the man who was calling Joyce Sterkel's Ranch For Kids Project a "trash can for unwanted children" on his website. Whether it was a made-for-TV confrontation for viewers back home or a serious bid to gain entry, Sterkel kept the two dozen children inside and away from the gate. The Russians didn't try to enter the property, but Astakhov vowed...

A civil liberties group filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday challenging North Carolina's prohibition against same-sex couples adopting each other's children. The ban on so-called second parent adoptions violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian parents and their children, according to the complaint filed in Greensboro by the American Civil Liberties Union. North Carolina is one of eight U.S. states where same-sex couples are barred from adopting children together and/or are not allowed to have one partner adopt the other's biological or adoptive children, according to the ACLU. A December 2010 decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court held...

Today at the Tazewell County Court House in Pekin, Illinois, our adoption of our children became final. They are Amber Agee and Nick Agee, ages 13 and 12 respectively. Amber and Nick are sister and brother and have been in our care for about 4 years and we have been actively pursuing this adoption for the past two years. Rejoice with us. God is truly wonderful! Our new children will be reading the comments. I'm pinging a few hundred of my close friends, if I omitted anyone it was unintentional. If you're pinged more than once, get over it. Just...

What do you do when you have created 18 extra IVF embryos and you don't want to destroy them or give them away to just anyone?  You put them on Craigslist of course!  From WhoTV.com: After struggling for years to have children the McCrea family had their prayers answered, and then some, thanks to In Vitro Fertilization. Now the family is sharing their extra blessings.... Deb had nearly signed on the dotted line to donate those leftover 18 embryos to a fertility clinic, but something just didn’t seem right. “When my daughter was born, I went months and months just...