SCOTUS is talking a lot about adoption, so here's what the data show. An extremely quick thread. 🧵
The vast majority of people who want abortions are not meaningfully interested in adoption. If they are denied access to abortion 91% of them will parent instead of relinquishing.
The vast majority of people who want abortions are not meaningfully interested in adoption. If they are denied access to abortion 91% of them will parent instead of relinquishing.
However, this 9% is huge. Only 0.5% of all birth in the U.S. are relinquished, so this a dramatic difference. If you deny access to abortion, if you constrain choices, people will turn to adoption because they have no option.
This 9% is significant because it mirrors EXACTLY the proportion of non-marital white births that were relinquished for adoption pre-Roe. Yes: the adoption rate TODAY for people denied abortion is the same as the pre-Roe rate.
On the other side: most women who relinquish infants for adoption do not meaningfully consider abortion. Most of them would prefer to parent, but turn to adoption when parenting feels untenable (usually due to poverty and/or lack of support).
Adoption is thus the choice of the choiceless: for people who want abortion but can't have one, for people who want to parent, but feel powerless to do so.
This is not a scenario that leads to good outcomes.
This is not a scenario that leads to good outcomes.
I'm glad to have many people on this thread who've probably not thought deeply about adoption before. I'd love to share this thread from last month, with some of my data from women who've relinquished. I hope you'll take a moment to read their stories.
https://twitter.com/gesisson/status/1455279117058805765?s=20
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
