Continued from here, where we've been talking about potential dangers of crowding too many unrelated concepts under the adoption umbrella.

CFF's (Children First Foundation) Benefit Committee includes leaders of the New York State Right to Life Committee, the Connecticut Right to Life Committee, the New Jersey Family Policy Council and the Family Institute of Connecticut, organizations that support CFF's efforts to promote Adoption and Safe Havens as positive, compassionate and life-saving choices that deserve greater public understanding, appreciation and support.

Not only does tying BSHs to adoption sound self-serving to me in a "give-your-baby-to-me" sort of way, it broadly assumes that adoption is anti-abortion territory. My experience tells me that the politics of pro-choice does not preclude participation by adoptive families.

The decision to bring a child into the family through the miracle of adoption does not, for many, migrate anywhere near the territory of a woman's right to choose to have an abortion.

Yes, we adoptive parents perhaps would hold out more hope for the child of a crisis pregnancy, being that it's the happy end of the story we see from our perspective. Yes, those longing desperately for a child may curse the fates that seem to put one casually inside a woman who as desperately doesn't want one, and suffer greatly from even the thought of the loss a termination must mean. This does not, though, mean that all of us would eliminate the choice.

For many of us, our advocacy tends to focus on children once they are here and in need of a loving family, for whatever reasons, and keeping this option open takes a lot of energy and effort.

It is fact that there truly is a portion of the population that is avidly anti-adoption. Some are against international adoptions, while for other it's transracial adoption that should never again be allowed, and a vocal few would put an end to any and all.

This being the case, those who support adoption as an option for children have an obligation to keep the table clean and clear, so when arguments do come along we are able to keep the real issues in sight.

Baby Safe Havens on the pro-life agenda? The two don't necessarily equate in my mind, but if people want to connect the dots that way, they will. Adding adoption to the picture, however, feels manipulative, and compromises adoption in the process.

We'll be debating all these issues until the cows come home, but to be fair to each (issue, not cow) we should do this one at a time.