VFA Post-Dobbs Statement on Adoption Complexity
As a result of the recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, there has been much discussion about adoption. Most of these discussions fail to capture the complexity of adoption. As a national coalition of adoption organizations, Voice for Adoption is compelled to weigh in. The Dobbs decision obviously raises broader questions about the impact on child welfare, which we will explore in a future statement.
Voice for Adoption advocates, educates, and collaborates to advance federal policies that promote and sustain permanence for children and youth in foster care. We strongly support policies to keep children with their birth parents. When that is not possible, we support adoption, guardianship, and other forms of relational permanency to ensure that children do not age out of foster care without the support of family. Youth who exit care without a family face high risk of homelessness, early parenting, poverty, mental and physical health issues, and other poor outcomes (Child Trends, 2019).
The first thing to know about adoption is that it is not a simple, one-time event. Adoption has lifelong and generational impacts on everyone involved, especially the adopted person. Adoption can be loving, beautiful, and wonderful. But that is only one dimension of the experience and may not be experienced by all. Leaning into the complexities is critical to truly understanding the impact of adoption and the need for ongoing support or the child, birth family, and adoptive family.
The second thing to know is that adoption can be the best choice for some children, but it is not an easy option or the first option. Children should be with the first families whenever possible, and we must increase investments in keeping families together.
One of the reasons adoption is not easy is that it is based on loss. No matter how successful the adoption is, at the heart of adoption is the child’s loss of birth family and the parents’ loss of ability to raise their child. Without leaning into this complexity, it is impossible to understand some of the challenges that children who were adopted and their families may encounter at different developmental milestones.
Compounding these issues of loss is the fact that many (but not all) adopted children—because they suffered early deprivation, in-utero exposure to drugs or alcohol, or maltreatment—come to their new families with elevated risk for developmental, physical, psychological, emotional, or behavioral challenges (Smith, 2010). These risks are particularly high for children adopted from foster care, who often entered care due to neglect or abuse and have often experienced significant instability while in care.
The third thing to know is that, as a result of losses and challenges noted above, many adoptive families need in-depth preparation as well as ongoing supports. Not having necessary preparation and ongoing support can cause instability and result in poor outcomes for the child and family, including the breakdown of the adoption. Every adoptive family should have access to a comprehensive array of specialized post-adoption services that are designed to meet the needs of the entire family.
Fourth, to truly understand adoption you need to listen to people who have been adopted. For years, adoptees have talked about the negative impact of secrecy in adoption (including lack of access to their birth certificates) as well as the importance of birth family and cultural connections. Many adoptions are now open, ensuring that children have a chance to know their birth parents and other family members and to know more about their history. Many adoptions are within a child’s first family—in 2020, more than one-third of children adopted from care were adopted by their relatives (AFCARS report #28, 2021). We must continue to move adoption further in this direction, viewing adoption as adding to a child’s family, and not the subtraction of their first parents and family.
Adoption is not all good or all bad. It is not simple. It can provide a child with a caring family when their first family cannot raise them. If we want to reduce further harm to children who are adopted, we need to support them, their birth parents, and their adoptive families to address the complexities that arise. We encourage those who talk about adoption to truly take the time to understand the complexities and dynamics associated with this life-changing experience.