Adoption Competency in a Post–Roe v. Wade Reality

Abstract

As we move into a post–Roe v. Wade reality, it is imperative that social work educators and professionals become proficient in the realities and ethics of adoption. As legal abortion becomes increasingly unavailable in the United States, some anticipate that the number of domestic private adoptions will increase. However, social workers and other social service professionals should understand that adoption is not the simple substitute for abortion that some purport it to be. Rather, it is a complex pregnancy option that has lifelong implications for all members of the adoption triad (i.e., adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents). According to the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents, approximately 38% of all adoptions in the United States are private domestic adoptions—the vast majority of which involve infants (Vandivere et al., 2009). Increasingly, adoptees and advocates for adoption have called for reforms to the private adoption industry. Of key importance to this movement is the belief that adoption must exist to meet the needs of children rather than prospective parents who wish to build or expand their families through adoption (National Council for Adoption, 2020; North American Council on Adoptable Children, n.d.). However, in the now infamous leaked Supreme Court opinion, the authors referenced a 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that referred to the “domestic supply of infants” (“Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” 2022, p. 34). There was a social media outcry, as it would seem that many Americans were loath to hear children referred to as economic commodities. Yet domestic private adoption, also referred to as infant adoption, is estimated to be a multibillion-dollar industry (Carroll, 2011). The cost of a typical private infant adoption averages between $20,000 and $45,000 per child (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2016).