Thread by @rebeccanagle

There is a shortage in the “domestic supply of infants” in the US.

For decades, the adoption industry has filled this gap disproportionately with children from communities of color—first through international adoption and now foster care.

After Roe and the pill, the number of babies available for adoption in the US decreased dramatically. Adoption agencies solved this problem by going overseas.

But US demand started creating some unethical—and even illegal—adoption practices.

After reports of bribery, abuse of adopted children, and even kidnapping countries like Guatemala and Ethiopia started closing their borders to US families.

This created another big decrease in the number of adoptable children in the US.

At the height of international adoption in 2004, 23,000 children came to the US. In 2009 it was about 3,000. That's 20,000 less children.

At the same time, demand for adoption continued to go up. One source was evangelical Christians.

For decades, evangelical Christians have been promoting what they call “orphan care” as a biblical calling & ministry. Depending on the denomination, adoption is often explicitly framed as a way to eliminate the need for abortion.

After the international adoption boom busted, many adoption agencies turned to US foster care to find adoptable children for their clients. Today, private adoption agencies advertise “foster to adopt”. One agency leader even told us it’s “ way cheaper” for her clients.

Just like international adoption did, this is creating ethical problems. The goal of foster care isn’t adopting children out. The goal is reunification, if not with biological parents then with other kin.

The racial disparities in foster care are shocking.

Black & Native are most likely to end up in foster care. In 6 states, OVER HALF of Native kids will be the subject of a CPS investigation.

White kids are more likely than Native kids to be removed for abuse. While Native kids are more likely to be removed for neglect.

But even within foster care, there’s still a supply and demand problem. There are more people signed up for foster to adopt than foster children being adopted. In one state that gave us data, by a ratio of 100 to 1.

The majority of people who adopt in the US are white. The majority of children who are adopted are not.

While the number of white children being adopted in the US has dramatic declined since Roe, the number of Native American children being adopted has actually gone up.

Highly recommend @DorothyERoberts “Torn Apart” and @kathrynajoyce’s “The Child Catchers”. We also cover this stuff in ep 4 of #ThisLand.