Parsing Pro-Lifers Proposed Panacea
Dear Leading Ladies,
Pro-lifers like to promote adoption as a panacea for unwanted pregnancies.
Too many babies born after anti-abortion laws enacted?
No problem. Just put them up for adoption. Problem solved.
The holes in this logic are glaring.
First of all, currently, more than 118,000 children and youth in America are waiting to be adopted, a number that includes some of the 437,000 children and youth who are in foster care, according to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC). Children in foster care wait three or four years or even longer, to be adopted. Foster children are removed from their birth homes and put in foster care for a variety of reasons, but the most common are abusive neglect (61%); parental drug abuse (34%); the inability of the parent/caregiver to cope (14%); and physical abuse (12%).
Another look at foster care
In a prior letter, we looked at the negative impact on children living in abusive or neglectful families and then being put in foster care for long periods of time, where they experience feelings of “grief, guilt, anger, sadness, loneliness, anxiety, low self-esteem, mental and physical health issues,” according to SPCC. “Of youth who age out of foster care, ¼ are incarcerated within 2 years and only ½ graduate from high school. Children and adolescents with foster care experience are diagnosed with PTSD at twice the rate of US war veterans.”
Statistics indicate that the majority of women (90%) denied abortions will opt to keep their children rather than put them up for adoption. However, the concern among a host of researchers and professionals is that many of the women who choose to keep their babies will find themselves overwhelmed and turn to the already overwhelmed foster care system. Experts expect the already over-taxed foster care system to be flooded with an increase in children who will be released for adoption, but never find permanent homes.
Chart from adoptioncouncil.org
And what about adoption?
The most compelling statistic is that far more children are waiting to be adopted than there are adults waiting to adopt. Gretchen Sisson, a sociologist and researcher at the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health program at the University of California San Francisco, estimates that new abortion bans enacted post-Roe will increase the number of infants available for adoption by as many as 10,000 each year. If there are not enough families to adopt these children, they will be put into foster care where they could remain for years and become less adoptable the older they get.
To be adopted into a loving home is certainly a gift for a child who otherwise could face a life of challenge, including families with insufficient resources or mothers too young or immature to take on the task of child rearing. But adoption is not without its downsides for many children who may experience lifelong feelings of abandonment, frustration as they seek their birth parents, and confused feelings of identity. Statistics indicate that adopted children have higher rates of mental health issues and behavioral problems, though it can be difficult to suss out what might be caused by genetic predispositions, environmental factors, exposures during pregnancy, or nurturing deficits in infancy.
Domestic, international, & transracial adoption
A recent article in The New Yorker included interviews with several adopted adults who voiced complicated feelings about being adoptees. Those of a different race from their adopted parents seemed to share a great love and appreciation for their adoptive parents, but felt they missed the opportunity to develop a connection to their culture of birth. An African American woman with white adoptive parents and a Korean woman also with white adoptive parents both grew up feeling somewhat lonely and out of place, living in homogeneous communities where others didn’t look like them. In adulthood, they sought to identify with their heritage in a meaningful way to find a sense of belonging and wholeness. They are not alone.
At the same time, and for a variety of reasons, international adoptions have declined significantly since 2005, as much as 90% according to some. Consequently, adoptive parents are looking to domestic adoptions more and more.
Meanwhile, the issue of transracial adoption continues to be important in the Black community, especially since Black Lives Matter and the Floyd murder. As early as 1972, the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) issued a statement taking “a vehement stand against the placement of Black children in white homes for any reason,” and calling for change in the “Strict requirements such as income levels, educational achievements, and residential areas…based on the standards of the white, middle-class. These standards made it nearly impossible for black families to be considered as they had been historically marginalized.”
Today, the concerns continue among Black birth mothers, Black social workers, and many others who are concerned about the health and wellbeing of youth of color. Nonetheless, it remains difficult to place many children of color with adoptive parents of color. Currently, nearly 30% of all domestic adoptions are transracial, so the challenge of finding Black adoptive parents continues.
The past, present, & future for women & children
Needless to say, women’s health care – or rather, the lack of women’s health care – is not a new problem. Poor Black, Hispanic, Native American, and white birth parents, particularly teens, are overwhelmed when they lack hope and the basic elements of a good life.
Recent legislative and judicial actions are making the situation exponentially worse. Imagine how easy access to contraception, family planning information, and abortion could change the lives of the women who lack the personal or tangible resources to care for an infant? Imagine how the rates of poverty, crime, illiteracy, depression, PTSD, and generational hopelessness in our country could change?
Without family planning education and access to contraception and abortion, those most vulnerable in our society are dealt another devastating blow destined to keep them from rising out of the abyss of disenfranchisement. That’s not an accident.
We need to channel our anger with our commitment and our dollars. Let’s all support the organizations that continue to provide the prevention and care women need. Now more than ever, they need our voices and money.
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Mackenzie (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team