Letter to the editor of the day

This prominent billboard is posted en route to the Tulsa airport. My reaction was similar to Ms McKinney's, but not nearly as eloquent.

Babies aren't missing
By Hilary McKinney, Tulsa
Published: 9/27/2010 2:18 AM
Last Modified: 9/27/2010 4:03 AM

Recently, a billboard asking "Where have all the babies gone?" was erected at U.S. 169 and 51st Street. I was unaware that there was a shortage of babies in the world. Where could all these babies be disappearing from?

They aren't disappearing from the U.S. By the end of 2009 more than 114,000 children in the United States were awaiting adoption. Only 57,000 children were actually adopted that year, according to the U.S. Department of Health.

They aren't disappearing in other countries either. The ratio of babies born to people dying is 2.5 to 1, and there are more than 143 million orphaned children globally, according to the CIA World Factbook and UNICEF.

Apparently, the babies are missing from your uterus. At least this is what "40 Days for Life" (the religious anti-choice organization sponsoring the billboard) would have you believe.

Don't be fooled. They aren't missing because of abortions. The assumption that 40 Days for Life wants you to make just isn't supported by the facts. The rate of abortions in the U.S. actually decreased by 18 percent from 1990 to 2005, according to most current official U.S. Census Bureau data.

My question to 40 Days for Life is: Wouldn't your time be better spent working on issues facing babies who already have been born, rather than praying to end a woman's right to choose?

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/article.aspx?subjectid=62&articleid=20100927_62_A15_Bbernt932626