A task force appointed by President Reagan is expected to report next month on ways the government can promote and encourage adoption. In announcing the task force, the White House pointed out that thousands of childless families are waiting for children, thousands of children with special needs are not adopted, and women experiencing crisis pregnancies often do not place their babies for adoption.
“We must expand and broaden our efforts to make sure that America’s family-less children are adopted,” Reagan said. “We must do all we can to remove obstacles that prevent qualified adoptive parents from accepting these children into their homes.”
According to a White House statement, the Reagan administration “is especially committed to infant adoption as an alternative for pregnant women” who are considering raising their children alone or obtaining abortions. The task force is charged with identifying barriers to adoption, assessing laws and regulations affecting the process, and recommending ways to improve it. “There are as many problems as there are kinds of adoptions,” said Mary Gall, task force chairperson and counselor to the director of the federal Office of Personnel Management. Gall, who is single, adopted two children from Guatemala.
The 13-member task force is made up of government staff officials from a variety of federal agencies and departments, including two White House policy officials. The task force report is due November 22.
Identifying Needs
A major obstacle confronting the task force is the lack of statistical data on adoption. Federal efforts to collect such data ended in 1975, and the best source of information today is the Adoption Factbook, published in 1985 by the National Committee For Adoption (NCFA.) Adoption is regulated by state laws that vary considerably on such matters as the time it takes to finalize an adoption, how an independent adoption may be pursued, and an adopted child’s access to birth records.
Gall said the task force is contacting leading adoption groups and agencies to ask for recommendations and data. In 1982 there were 50,720 adoptions of unrelated children by couples or single people. More than 5,000 of these were children from abroad, primarily from Korea, Latin America, India, and the Philippines.
Along with data collection, the task force will examine issues such as health insurance coverage for adoption, the need for better maternity care and housing for pregnant women, and tax benefits for the adoption of children with special needs, such as children with disabilities. The task force will also examine state laws and adoption processes that appear to be working well, Gall said. She cited California as a state with “an excellent approach” in terms of job counseling of pregnant women, helping them obtain high school equivalency degrees, and other forms of assistance.
NCFA president William L. Pierce said he welcomes the task force appointment. “This task force not only needs to look at broad issues and identify legislation that needs to be enacted,” he said. “They also need to spend time rallying our society behind adoption.”
Social Trends
NCFA’s 1985 report identifies trends that have made adoption increasingly difficult. These include the legalization of abortion, the impact of the sexual revolution, and the practice of allowing pregnant teenagers to continue attending public schools. NCFA points out, “While this is an advancement of access to education for young pregnant women, it results in less privacy for young women who carry their babies to term.… Coming back to school from the hospital without a baby is ‘unthinkable’ to many teens.”
Other factors include court decisions upholding the rights of fathers. NCFA’s report says, “It is ironic that while a woman can unilaterally choose a confidential abortion, she does not have the unilateral right to place the child for adoption.” Reduced social stigmas for raising out-of-wedlock babies and the closing of many maternity residences for young pregnant women work against adoption as well.
