It’s not uncommon to see students from Voices for Choices, the abortion rights group, handing out its famous cookies and condoms in Kogan Plaza.
But this week Colonials for Life, an anti-abortion student group, hosted its first Apples for Adoption event to educate students about choosing adoption over abortion in the event of a crisis pregnancy.
The group gave out 600 to 700 free apples and about 1,000 flyers from its table in Kogan, explaining reasons why members believe adoption is the healthier choice for all parties involved in unwanted pregnancies.
“We are promoting adoption to make people aware of the epidemic in our country where there are not enough babies to satisfy the demand,” said Suanne Edmiston, a senior and the founder of Colonials for Life.
Edmiston said there are an estimated 2 million couples on waiting lists to adopt because they are unable to have children of their own and, in contrast, there are about 1.3 million abortions performed annually.
Adoption is the “most selfless thing a couple can do,” Edmiston said, because it considers all of the parties involved, including the parents who do not have to lose a baby, the child whom she believes has a right to life and other families desperately looking to adopt.
“The apple is kind of like the fruit of life,” she said. “You can take an unplanned for situation and make something beautiful.”
She added that stigmas in American society make women believe that when they become pregnant unexpectedly, their only alternative to raising a child is abortion. Colonials for Life is trying to counter such beliefs.
Edmiston also said women who choose to have an abortion in a crisis pregnancy are psychologically harmed throughout the rest of their lives, and abortions affect the woman’s parenting skills later in life.
Tovah Pentelovitch, treasurer of Voices for Choices, said her organization was unaware that Colonials for Life was basing Apples for Adoption off of its event.
“It would make sense, since most of their events are in response to our events,” Pentelovitch said, added that advocating for adoption is something that Voices for Choices does as well.
“Apples for Adoption doesn’t hurt our organization. We think it’s great that Colonials for Life is doing some productive programming,” she said. “Voices for Choices is in no way opposed to adoption and sees it as one of the many personal choices available to people. We are happy to see Colonials for Life advocating for choices.”
Pentelovitch said that at this year’s Cookies and Condoms event, which took place at the end of August, the organization distributed about 400 to 500 cookies and 700 to 800 condoms.
“The fact that we give out so many condoms meant that people are going to be more likely to use them,” she said.
