There are good medical reasons for abortion -- such as ending a tubular pregnancy -- but "inconvenience" or "family planning" are not included.

The letters of Jewel Pullen on Sept. 30 and of Niki Waller on Oct. 2 hold that the only options are abortion or an unwanted baby that will be a burden on society, and that pro-lifers do not care about the born. These letters as well as the replies by Brian Martin and Catherine S. Minor on Oct. 5 do not mention a third option: adoption.

In the bad old days before birth-control pills and abortion on demand, unwanted babies and those that the family could not take care of were put up for adoption. Very few of them were put into orphanages, and many of these were adoptable only if one or both of the parents terminated their parental rights.

Now there is a great shortage of adoptable babies, as they are killed off by abortion. Now people have to go to other countries, often at great expense, to adopt, and often can only get older children who have been "institutionalized." A nephew went to the Philippines and they could only adopt an older boy who was troubled for awhile.

All those in my family and friends who adopted babies were very happy to get them and raised them as their own. This includes one son-in-law who in a poem thanked his birth mother who gave him up so that he could be raised in a loving extended family. One cousin could not have children, so the family adopted four -- then something changed and they had three of their own. All were wanted and treated the same. A friend adopted three babies, then her husband dropped dead at age 39 when the third was still a baby. She raised them all successfully.

Now adoptable babies are rare, and a friend who was able to adopt one recently was very happy about it. More adoptable babies would make many more people happy.