Monday, September 14, 2009

Are CPC's really coercing women into adoption?

In case you missed it, the Nation ran an article (also on Alternet) entitled, "Shotgun Adoption" by Kathyrn Joyce. Her thesis is that adoption agencies and crisis pregnancy center coerce vulnerable women into making adoption plans. The article focuses much of its attention on Bethany Christian Services.

As evidence for her claims, Joyce comes up with 2 women who claim they were coerced into adoption (one in 1999, the other in 1994), a woman who claims she was unsuccessfully pressured to relinquish her child by a CPC (ten years ago), a Village Voice investigation into California CPCs in 1994, a couple in Utah who says an adoption agency director got mad at a girl who backed out of an adoption (no date given), and a couple who were apparently pressured into adoption (in 2000). The article also claims "Bethany is ranked poorly by birth mothers" on an unidentified "adoption agency rating website."

According to Bethany's web page, they "placed 1,694 children with their adoptive families" in 2008. 734 were domestic infant adoptions, 456 were older child adoptions, and 504 were international adoptions.

That means Joyce was unable to find a single woman willing to claim Bethany (or any CPC for that matter) coerced her into adoption in the last ten years despite Bethany setting up likely somewhere around 6,000-7,000 domestic infant adoptions in that time frame.

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