In "A woman's right?" (Forum, Jan. 25), Pat Schneiter asked women to "please consider adoption" instead of abortion. She claimed there are "many couples" who "would love to take these babies."

It is a fallacy that adoption is the answer to the abortion debt. The United Nations Children's Fund estimates that there are 210 million orphaned children in the world. I see that as evidence that there is a lack of couples or families willing to feed, cloth and shelter the unwanted children of the world.

What responsibilities do we have to the millions of children already looking for a home? Is it sensible to add one more child to the statistic? Please stop pretending that the abortion debt is so easily solved by adoption.

It is important to take a good look at the race, class and gender of the women and children involved in this discussion, and then maybe we can have a more productive dialogue.

Marcie Leek

Murray