As if things couldn’t get any stranger in the adopto-sphere, The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Casey Anthony, mother of missing toddler Caylee Anthony, originally wanted to place her daughter for adoption but was discouraged from doing so by her (Casey’s) mother.
(The headline for this story reads “Caylee Anthony wasn’t a child who was wanted, court records show”)
This revelation brings several things to mind:
1. That Casey even considered placing Caylee for adoption is, for prosecutors and the media, evidence of guilt. Apparently, if a woman is found to have expressed any sort of ambivilancy about pregnancy and/or parenting, this is taken as evidence of her increased capacity for abuse, neglect and homicidal tendencies.
(Don’t believe me? Consider the case of Tabitha Walrond who briefly considered abortion while pregnant with her son. Ms. Walrond was eventually convicted of criminally negligent homicide after her son died of malnourishment because Ms. Walrond did not produce enough breast milk. The prosecutor argued that Ms. Walrond’s consideration of abortion “. . .is what led the defendant to a road that led [to her son's] death.”)
2. Pro-adoptionists and baby-dump advocates may well start screeching that this is what happens when women are discouraged from placing their kids for adoption and/or safe-havens are not available.
3. The general public is going to follow the lead of prosecutors and the media, and continue its negative assumptions about birthmothers/first mothers. Paridoxically, they are also going to go along with pro-adoptionists/baby-dump advocates in blaming Casey’s mother for nixing the adoption plan.
Myself? I think that the fact that Casey Anthony considered adoption for Caylee is irrelevant. This case (as are most cases involving the abuse/neglect/kidnapping/death of a child) is a one-off situation: A set of unique personalities and circumstances gave rise to (what may be) a heinous crime.
As some commenters in various forums have noted, it is not unusual for women to experience ambivalance about a pregnancy, particularly when they are nineteen years old and single. But in the end, those who carry to term typically keep and raise their babies, even if they had seriously planned on relinquishing whilst pregnant.
It goes without saying that these women almost never kill their children, abuse them, nor go for a month before reporting their child as “missing” to the authorities. But since the “a-word” has been mentioned, common sense is likely going to have very little to do with how this case is tried in the media.
Stumble it!
