Free Republic

A woman abandoned as a newborn 27 years ago in an Allentown, Pennsylvania, fast-food restaurant bathroom has been reunited with her birth mother after a social media blitz, local media reported on Wednesday. Katheryn Deprill, left in the Burger King bathroom only hours after she was born, met her birth mother on Monday in a lawyer’s office, she told WFMZ television in an interview. Deprill said her birth mother, who she did not identify, recounted getting pregnant after being raped while on a trip abroad and giving birth in her childhood bedroom at the age of 17. Her parents did...

<p>SALINAS, Calif. –  Three starving children -- including one who was chained to the floor to prevent her from getting food -- were found last month in the squalid home of a Northern California couple, authorities said.</p> <p>All three -- two boys and a girl -- were taken into protective custody, and one was hospitalized, Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller said Friday.</p>

Deputies responding to a Salinas, Calif., home on March 14 to investigate child neglect allegations found three starved and abused children, one chained to the floor. During the investigation, deputies found very little food in the house, which they described as “cluttered and dirty.” The deputies found three children - an 8-year-old girl, a 5-year-old boy and a 3-year-old boy - who they said exhibited signs of physical and emotional abuse. The suspects, Eraca Dawn Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica Deanda, 44, were arrested for numerous child abuse-related cases.

Cheryl Eckstein, the leader of the Compassionate Healthcare Network sent out an important news story from Russia concerning Belgium extending euthanasia to children. The Voice of Russia reported on March 9, 2014 stated that: Russian officials have come up with a proposal to ban child adoption by citizens of countries where child euthanasia is permissible. The report states: Russian MPs have proposed to put a ban on child adoption by citizens of countries where the euthanasia of underage children is allowed. A lawyer, Larisa Pavlova, the Chairwoman of the board of Directors of the Parents Committee (a public organization) shares...

The children of same-sex couples have a tough road ahead of them—I know, because I have been there. The last thing we should do is make them feel guilty if the strain gets to them and they feel strange.

Should New Jersey lawmakers pass a bill that would allow adopted people to obtain their original birth certificates, revealing their biological parents' identity? On Monday, a state Assembly panel approved the measure, which would allow an adopted adult or an adoptive parent on a child's behalf to request his or her birth certificate from the state Health Department. It's the latest bill to tackle the issue. Similar measures have failed for more than three decades. Gov. Chris Christie conditionally vetoed a version in 2011, saying he would support a compromise that allowed a confidential intermediary to search for natural parents....

Full title: Russia Signs New Gay Adoption Law Same-Sex Couples From Countries Where Marriage Legal Not Allowed to Adopt Russia banned adoptions by single people from countries where same-sex marriage is legal on Thursday, bringing the new measure into law in the middle of a Winter Olympics already steeped in controversy over Russian antigay policies. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed the decree, which was posted on the Russian government's official website on Thursday. The decree reiterates a ban on adoptions by same-sex couples who are in unions "recognized as marriages and registered in accordance with the...

About a year and a half ago, my wife and I flew to Ethiopia and returned to America with our newly adopted son, Amare -- the only black member of our now family of five. We expected his new brothers and extended family, our friends, church, and neighbors to embrace and love him, and they didn't disappoint us. We did not know what to expect, however, from the general American public. We were optimistic that it would go well, but in our educational sessions about adopting internationally, some focused on the prejudices we would encounter upon our return. We were...

Among the 11 percent is tea-party favorite Tim Huelskamp, although as Ace notes, on Twitter that’s only further evidence of Huelskamp’s racism. If you’re into persecuting minorities, there’s no deeper deep cover than adopting kids who are minorities. It just proves how far you’re willing to go for the cause. This is interesting work by Jim Lindgren but it won’t change a single mind. Republican racism is a “political fact” whether or not it’s an actual one. Coming soon to MSNBC: “Whopping 89 percent of conservatives with step- or adopted kids have no family members from other races.”

In its latest annual report, released in December, Planned Parenthood says it did 327,166 abortion procedures in the course of one year and 2,197 adoption referrals. That works out to approximately 149 abortions for each adoption referral. The data comes from an accounting of “patient care” Planned Parenthood says its “affiliate health centers” did in the year that ran from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012. …

We live in strange times. On the one hand there is the marketing of “natural” and “organic” food. Processed foods and products are bad, natural and organic ones are good. Free range chicken, grass fed cattle etc. Nothing “unnatural” should enter the body. Or so the logic and marketing goes.But when it comes to human sexuality and also the raising of kids, apparently, nature has to go. Many women take unhealthy and artificial pills to drastically alter their hormonal system and become chemically sterile. Or artificial barriers are used to unnaturally hinder the sexual act for its natural end. Perfectly...

The recent media controversy over the MSNBC anchor who criticized Romney for adopting a black baby, reflects how liberals view white conservatives. Liberals believe that white conservatives should not be raising children at all, including their own biological children. When white conservatives adopt black children, they view it as a form of child abuse. White conservatives are seen by liberals as haters of blacks, and that they will teach their black babies to hate blacks. That attitude may seem funny to conservatives, but the liberals are serious. One blog commented on this issue: http://godfatherpolitics.com/12835/conservatives-permitted-adopt-black-babies/

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry made a tearful apology to Mitt Romney’s family on her show Saturday, after she and a panel poked fun at a photo of the former Republican presidential candidate with his wife and 21 grandchildren by zeroing in on his adopted African-American grandson. "Whatever the intent was, the reality is that the segment proceeded in a way that was offensive, and showing the photo in that context, of that segment, was poor judgment. So without reservation or qualification, I apologize to the Romney family," said the anchor at the open of her show, "Melissa Harris-Perry." Harris-Perry became...

An MSNBC host is apologizing to Mitt Romney's family after she and guests on her show joked about a Christmas picture that showed the 2012 Republican presidential candidate's adopted, African-American grandson. Melissa Harris-Perry said Tuesday her intention was to celebrate diversity, but the segment took an unexpected and offensive turn. The photo shows infant Kieran Romney with his grandparents and their 21 other grandchildren, all of them white. One guest on her Sunday show, actress Pia Glenn, sang 'one of these things just isn't the same.' Comedian Dean Obeidallah, said it 'sums up the diversity of the Republican party.' Harris-Perry...

MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry lined up a panel of alleged comedians to mock the Christmas picture Mitt Romney posted on Twitter. In a segment with the on-screen question "What's So Funny About 2013?" Harris-Perry announced: “This is the Romney family. And, of course, there on Governor Romney’s knee is his adopted grandson, who is an African-American, an adopted African-American child, Kieran Romney.” To which comedian and actress Pia Glenn sang the old Sesame Street ditty “One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn’t the same … “And that little baby, front and...

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry offered an apology to the Romney family on Tuesday after a panel on her show mocked the fact that one of Mitt Romney's grandchildren was black. On Sunday's "Melissa Harris-Perry" show, Harris-Perry led a panel in discussing the "Photos of the Year," which included a Romney family Christmas photo. In the photo, Romney is seen holding his adopted grandchild, Kieran, who is black.

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry offered an apology to the Romney family on Tuesday after a panel on her show mocked the fact that one of Mitt Romney's grandchildren is black. On Sunday's "Melissa Harris-Perry" show, Harris-Perry led a panel in discussing the "Photos of the Year," which included a Romney family Christmas photo. In the photo, Romney is seen holding his adopted grandchild, Kieran, who is black. During the segment, guest panelist Pia Glenn sang, "One of these things is not like the others! One of these things just isn't the same," a reference to Kieran. "And that little baby,...

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry apologized Tuesday for openly mocking Mitt Romney's black adopted grandson, after Sarah Palin led the chorus of conservatives who criticized the cable news host. The Romney family Christmas card was among the items featured in the "2013: The year in political ridiculousness" segment on the cable news show Sunday.

Host of eponymous “Melissa Harris-Perry Show” is under fire for making the race of Romney’s adopted grandson a punchline. MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry concluded the “What’s So Funny About 2013?” segment of her Sunday show with a chorus of laughter at the black grandson pictured in former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s family Christmas photo. The chuckles were directed at baby Kieran – who was adopted by Romney’s son Ben and his wife Andelynne in September. Also read: The Year in Cable News: Bashir, Baldwin Exits Cap Year of Turmoil for MSNBC “One of these things is not like the others,...

So just how gay-friendly is Pope Francis? Consider this. In his Christmas sermon, Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta condemned adoption by same-sex couples. He insisted that God's own son was raised by a man and a woman, and not by two men or two women. How divisive! said the media. But now it turns out that Bishop Scicluna met Pope Francis on December 12. The bishop later told the Times of Malta: “We discussed many aspects… and when I raised the issue that’s worrying me as a bishop [the right for gay couples to adopt] he encouraged me to speak...