Feminism and Adoption

I have been engaging in  discussion is currently going on at Alas: A blog, entitled: Adoption is not a woman’s soled decision with some interesting back and forth on how much rights fathers should or shouldn't have. I have hopefully added tot eh subject with a reference to the list of fathers fighting for custody per PoundPuppy Legacy.

One of my latest comment follows:

None of this serves the children who should have an inalienable right to be cared for a loving, responsible parent who wants to care for them before being placed with strangers.

The reason our laws are set up this way is because the adoption lobby is very powerful and that is because there is are BILLIONS of dollars in separating families and very little to no funds to help families in crisis.

Public opinion too often sides with the desperation of those wanting a child and favor laws that sever parental rights as quickly as possible (the whole gist behind Utah’s laws). But it is the demand that creates and feeds the baby market industry and often encourages corruption, exploitation and even human trafficking for adoption (see works of David Smolin).

As feminists, it is important that we see not just women who WANT babies to adopt, but also women (and men) who are unnecessarily loosing their families because of laws that favor adoption over family preservation. South Australia recently issued an apology for what it called ‘forced’ adoptions back prior to the mid 1970s. The US still engages in many practices that S. Au. apologized for!

See, for instance Elizabeth Samuels article: “Time to Decide? The Laws Governing Mothers’ Consents to the Adoption of Their Newborn Infants”

Also PLEASE READ: “Reverse Robinhoodism: Pitting Poor Again” by Mirah Riben, et al.

AND: Feminist Lens on Adoption by Katie Leo

Feminism has a history and reputation of being by for and about the needs of the wealthy and a bit out of touch with the needs of lower class women and mothers. The only feminists who have approached adoption from the perspective of the underdog mother loosing her child to meet a demand are Phyllis Chesler and Ricki Solinger. We need more scholarly work and efforts toward legal changes to protect the rights of natural mothers – and fathers from the huge demand for their children, turning them into handmaids.

I have been fighting this fight for nearly 40 years. During that 40 years there has been a decline in adoptions because of social changes, but the demand is still there and the acceptance of same sex marriage adds to the demand by infertile hetero couples. That demand fuels corruption to obtain babies at any cost, both here and overseas. Women are being used as brood stock, they are being lied to and deceived – told their children are being brought to the U$ for an education, etc. Some are having their children stolen at gunpoint. And in one case in which the child was kidnapped from her Guatemalan mother the US adoptive family, the Monahans, were NOT made to return her! Read the book, Finding Fernanda by Erin Segal. Babies are being stolen in China, India, VietNam, Russia and Ethiopia, just to name a few hot spots.

Babies are big business and mothers are fathers collateral damage.
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Please join the conversation. I have not seen so much misinformation about adoption in a long time. Not mythology, just total misconceptions and misinformation about relinquishment, mothers and fathers rights!