by Liz Latty
The Establishment, 19 April 2017
In their efforts to cure what they see as a moral crisis infecting our nation, the anti-choice movement has historically thrown their power, money, and influence behind their two favorite antidotes to abortion: abstinence-only education and adoption… We all know, both from data and from common sense, that abstinence education is not only a failure but wildly detrimental to the health and safety of young people. But there doesn’t yet seem to be a broader understanding… that promoting adoption has its problems too…
Mainstream feminism has historically gotten behind adoption. Feminists have supported the rights of single people and same-gendered families to adopt, the rights of adoptive families in contested adoptions, and policies intended to get children into adoptive homes faster. What’s missing is any explicit support for families of origin: the parents who have to lose their children, the families that must be dismantled in order for adoptive families to be built…
The fact is, most people who relinquish their children for adoption or have their children taken away from them, both in the USA and internationally, do so as a result of economic and racial injustice. In a recent study published by the Donaldson Adoption Institute (DAI), only a third of first mothers who were interviewed reported that the decision to relinquish their parental rights was largely based on their own wishes. The number one reason why they relinquished their parental rights, according to the DAI report, is lack of financial resources (82%), followed by the absence of social support, and isolation. In addition, most cases of children removed from their families by state intervention and adopted through foster care are reported as cases of neglect, which are typically a result of poverty and the classist and racist biases embedded in the fabric of the child welfare system…
According to the National Pro-Choice Adoption Collaborative, over 95% of adoption agencies in [the USA] are religiously affiliated. Adoption professionals are often not giving thorough information about abortion as an option in their counselling. 40% of the mothers in the DAI study said it was never mentioned. But they’re also not presenting parenthood as a viable option, either…
Here’s a truth that can be hard to hear: Adoption is a trauma. Here’s an even harder truth: The adoption industry is a business. It generates billions of dollars each year and requires other people’s children in order to stay profitable.
