adoption

The Clinton-Era Law that Still Devastates Black Families

by Dorothy E. Roberts

The Adoption and Safe Families Act mandated state intervention to protect children from neglect, but did nothing to ensure an economic and social safety net to mitigate hardship. The result, spurred by anti-Black tropes, was an acceleration of family breakup by state agencies. 

Our Adoption Policies have Harmed Children

by Mical Raz

Changes adopted under the Clinton administration elevated the adoption of children from foster care as a policy goal, which had the effect of marginalizing biological parents from the process, sometimes contrary to children's best interests. 

Safe Haven "Baby Boxes" are a Medieval Horror

by Maria Laurino

"As generations of twentieth-century Italian mothers and their children can attest, giving a woman no choice but to anonymously surrender her baby is a route to ruined lives."

Adoption System Serves People Who Want Babies, Not Women Who Birth Them

by Gretchen Sisson

Despite Samuel Alito's rhetoric, adoption as practiced in the US does not resolve the basic conflicts inherent in unwanted pregnancy, which overlap historically with racial and class inequalities in the nation. 

Native children benefit from knowing their heritage. Why attack a system that helps them?

by Bob Ferguson and Fawn Sharp

For 40 years, the Indian Child Welfare Act has protected the best interests of Native children and helped preserve the integrity of tribal nations across the United States.

The Shameful Practice of Buying and Selling Babies Doesn't Only Happen Overseas, but Here in the US, too

by Janet Golden

In what might be called infant economics, here’s a brief history of the black market baby trade.