The for-profit adoption system in the United States is effectively legal human trafficking, and foster care is full of abusive people with no regard for children’s well-being. Major changes are necessary to put children’s mental and physical safety first. Children will no longer be treated as property.
About 135,000 children are adopted in the United States each year. Of non-stepparent adoptions, about 59% are from the child welfare (or foster) system, 26% are from other countries, and 15% are voluntarily relinquished American babies. The average age of a child in foster care is 7.7 years old and 29% of them will spend at least three years in the foster care system.
We have gathered data and stories provided from hundreds of adoptees ranging from domestic to international, adopted at many different ages ranging from birth to even adoptees adopted in adulthood. One of the main concerns with the industry is how adoptive parents are focused, and birth parents are exploited. We found that most adoption agencies don’t provide accurate information on the process to allow for the pregnant person or birth giver to make informed decisions while they are actively in a crisis.
At this time, adoptive parents are not provided accurate information on how they are participating in an unethical industry. The current system uses the crises and lack of knowledge on behalf of birth parents and hopeful adoptive parents to make a profit. This leaves the child(ren) in the situation of losing all autonomy and often growing up without a real voice in a world where their trauma will be minimized, mocked, and gaslit. American families are in a constant state of crisis and are easy targets for the for-profit adoption industry. We have to look at the root causes of these issues and acknowledge how the industry came to be (and the lack of regulations allowing for it to be) so profitable and corrupt.
We need to change the selection process to make it more possible for safe families to foster, and simultaneously harder for unsafe people to have access to children. We need to improve resources for foster families; some areas have good resources for foster parents, but other places do not and foster families are left to figure things out themselves.
Our goal is to keep as many families together as possible by offering support to parents in need. Second to that, children should be placed within their family, and if that is not possible then within their culture. Only after those options are exhausted should another type of safe home be considered. We must end the practice of straight white Christians getting priority in all foster and adoption cases, and end racist practices in fertility clinics and throughout the system.
Hundreds of thousands of children enter the foster care and adoption system each year. On average less than 50% exit the system each year. A little over half of those exits are the result of adoption, not reunification. There was a dramatic drop in children being removed from homes, as well as a drop in children exiting the foster care system (due to adoption or reunification) during the COVID-19 pandemic. While there is no definitive research on why, it may be due in part to a reduction of home visits, and slow-downs in the court system. (ACF Data)
The Children’s Bureau supports the development of state and tribal child welfare reporting systems to enable the collection and analysis of important information about children and families. They are also responsible for improving case practice and management.The Sherman administration will be changing the requirements to care for children, and adults will no longer be able to “own” children.
The current adoption and foster care programs and guidelines will be ended and new requirements will be put in place for child(ren) in need of care. An adult may care for and love a child who is in need of a home; however, it will not be a legal transaction of ownership. The steps listed below will be followed when determining who will care for the child. We want to ensure that a relationship between the child and the birth parents can be facilitated, whenever appropriate. The erasure of the child(ren)’s information will no longer be accepted. When a child receives care from another guardian or family, we will no longer update or destroy medical information such as birth certificates, birth time, birth weight, etc.
Priority will be given to safe caregivers in this order:
- Family preservation – keep the child(ren) in the home, provide resources to the family instead of others to care for the child(ren)
- Kinship – Care provided by a biological family member, provide resources to the family member instead of a foster family.
- Fictive Kinship – Care provided by a member of the same cultural or community member, provide resources to them to care for the child(ren)
- Legal Guardianship – Care provided outside of the biological or cultural family. Cultural/diversity classes required to understand and maintain the child’s culture/language.
- Legal adoption of adult(s) with their consent – Legal proceeding to change legal documents/last name.
When the child reaches adulthood (age 18, unless emancipated) they can decide if they legally want to change their last name and become a part of the care provider’s family. The current barriers that adoptees face are extensive, such as a loss of self, loss of medical records, and cultural knowledge. The Sherman administration’s focus is to provide a safe and nurturing experience for the child(ren) and reduce as much trauma as possible.
Over the past several years, more than 50 fertility doctors in the United States have been accused of fraud in connection with using their own sperm to impregnate victims. Fertility fraud is the failure on the part of a fertility doctor to obtain consent from a patient before inseminating them with someone else’s (or their own) sperm. This may give rise to a number of different types of fraud involving insurance, unnecessary procedures, theft of eggs, and other issues related to fertility treatment.
Many victims have come forward after finding out this occurred with them. The increase of DNA testing has been able to showcase this trend and siblings are being connected. Activists have been pushing for statewide and national legislation to make fertility fraud a crime.
These victims have requested that regulations be put in place for donor eligibility, including but not limited to honest accurate medical history to recipients, limits on number of live births, genetic marker testing, and full disclosure of donor accuracy. A doctor must inform a patient if using sperm from themselves, or a friend, family member, or associate.
As of February 2022, there are laws in Indiana, Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah. Arkansas enacted legislation in April 2021 and bills have been introduced in seven other states, including New York. Under the Sherman Administration, this action will be considered assault and will be treated as a criminal offense, not a “family court” issue.
Children are not property and will no longer be treated as such. They are autonomous beings and will have a voice in what happens to them. Children will have rights and with the other policies under the Sherman administration, they will have access to therapy and other resources to identify dangerous or harmful situations. In addition to resources for the child(ren), parents and caregivers will also receive care packages including pamphlets with information on parenting basics, classes, workshops, and respite care.