2% of U.S. children are adopted. About 127,000 adoptions take place each year and about 127,000 children are waiting in foster care to be adopted, however, only 15% of U.S. adoptions are through foster care. 50% of children in foster care available for adoption wait over a year; 6% wait 3-4 years.
HOWEVER
Only about 26% of non-step-parent adoptions are through foster care.....About 74% of non-step-parent adoptions are private domestic or international. 11-24% of infertile couples will seek adoption and 80% of Adoptive Parents have adopted due to infertility. 43% of all U.S. adoptions are private/domestic infant and international adoption by parents who are not-related to the family of origin (42% of all U.S. adoptions are stepparent adoptions). 90% of children adopted internationally are under the age of five.........
Only 1.2% of the demand for adoptions is able to be met each year, despite the amount of children waiting in foster care, because there are not enough of the type of children wanted for adoption (babies?) available to to be adopted.
So you tell me, whose needs does adoption really meet?
According to the Adoption Institute: "A variety of factors, including increased access to contraception, the legalization of abortion and changed social attitudes about unmarried parenting, have caused the number of white infants placed for adoption in the U.S. to decline dramatically. Between 1989 and 1995, 1.7 percent of children born to never-married white women were placed for adoption, compared to 19.3 percent before 1973. Among never-married black women, relinquishment rates have ranged from .2 percent to 1.5 percent."
So when only 1.2% of the demand for adoptions in the U.S. each year can be filled because the type of children people want are not available, children in the private realm costing "donations" of an upward of $20,000 (source) PER child, and top adoption agency execs are making six figures (source, source)..... please explain to me how manipulative and misleading practices are no longer in existance in this day and age and how agencies who like to give their execs cushy salaries don't have a self-interest in being over-encouraging (to use a nice term) to a woman considered adoption, simply because they'll make money off of the fees an Adoptive Family is willing to pay.
I find it interesting that adoption in its current form is so heavily defended by claims that it provides homes for abused children and needy orphans....when clearly it isn't the "abused children and orphans" who are being sought out to be adopted when only 1.2% of the adoption demand is being filled despite thousands still languishing in foster care--26% of which are actually adopted. What do the abused children have to do with anything when you're proof reading the "Dear Birthmother/incubator" letter you're planning on presenting to a pregnant woman?
According to the Adoption Institute: "A variety of factors, including increased access to contraception, the legalization of abortion and changed social attitudes about unmarried parenting, have caused the number of white infants placed for adoption in the U.S. to decline dramatically. Between 1989 and 1995, 1.7 percent of children born to never-married white women were placed for adoption, compared to 19.3 percent before 1973. Among never-married black women, relinquishment rates have ranged from .2 percent to 1.5 percent."
So when only 1.2% of the demand for adoptions in the U.S. each year can be filled because the type of children people want are not available, children in the private realm costing "donations" of an upward of $20,000 (source) PER child, and top adoption agency execs are making six figures (source, source)..... please explain to me how manipulative and misleading practices are no longer in existance in this day and age and how agencies who like to give their execs cushy salaries don't have a self-interest in being over-encouraging (to use a nice term) to a woman considered adoption, simply because they'll make money off of the fees an Adoptive Family is willing to pay.
I find it interesting that adoption in its current form is so heavily defended by claims that it provides homes for abused children and needy orphans....when clearly it isn't the "abused children and orphans" who are being sought out to be adopted when only 1.2% of the adoption demand is being filled despite thousands still languishing in foster care--26% of which are actually adopted. What do the abused children have to do with anything when you're proof reading the "Dear Birthmother/incubator" letter you're planning on presenting to a pregnant woman?
“Regrettably, in many cases, the emphasis has changed from the desire to provide a needy child with a home, to that of providing a needy parent with a child. As a result, a whole industry has grown, generating millions of dollars of revenues each year . . .” --United Nations, Commission on Human Rights, 2003.
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