PLW: Steve Jobs, adopted as a newborn, had Wisconsin roots

Re-posting from the blog Pro-Life in Tennessee, written by a Wisconsin native:

While we love our I pads and I phones and mourn the passing of Steve Jobs….human being….genius…..did you know he was just “products of conception?”

It started with two graduate students from the University of Wisconsin. Joanne Schiebel got pregnant from Syrian Political Science professor Abdulfattah Jandali. Her parents did not approve of them marrying, they did not have the financial resources , and she wanted to continue her education.

Yes, this was pre Roe vs Wade but abortions were still being done. Joanne decided on an adoption plan for her pre born child. She felt strongly that she wanted her child to be well educated and selected a lawyer and his wife. But when Steve was born the selected couple declined because they really wanted a girl….remember this was before ultrasounds. So another couple got the call to adopt the bouncing baby boy. Joanne was skeptical at first because they did not have the education she was looking for. The husband was a machinist and the mother an accountant. But they promised they would provide this baby with the opportunity to go to college. They kept that promise working hard and sacrificing to send Steve to college but as we know he dropped out after one semester, frustrated with the constraints of formal education.

He benefited from a stable family and a strong father/son relationship:

As a boy, Jobs and his father would work on electronics in the family garage. Paul would show his son how to take apart and reconstruct electronics, a hobby which instilled confidence, tenacity, and mechanical prowess in young Jobs.

Much is being written about Jobs today. But for all his accomplishments let’s remember some heroes in the background. Joanne Schiebel who did not think of her pre born child as just “products of conception.” She choose life and made an adoption plan with his best interest in mind.

 ProLife Wisconsin

Josh Mercer reminded me that Jobs was featured in one of CatholicVote's many fantastic ads.