Abbasse

Adoption Reform

When I am out meeting Michigan families and visiting various communities, I am pleased to see the diversity represented. I see many children who have been adopted internationally and am glad that they will have a chance to grow up in a constitutionally democratic nation and in our great state of Michigan. I think it is wonderful that these children are well accepted and received in our nation and community, that they will have an opportunity of equality and great educational benefits to allow them to succeed.

Seeing so many internationally adopted children, I started wondering about domestic adoption as well and the needs of children born in Michigan. There are many sides to the pro-life, pro-choice issue but I think most people would agree that we should choose life, whenever possible. We should favor life…. and the quality of that life. The Right-to-Life proponents would enthusiastically endorse this position but are virtually silent on how to take care of the children after they are born. If birth parents are unable to care for their children appropriately, the questions then arise: How are those lives going to be taken care of; by whom, and how well? It is here that domestic adoption must be encouraged; yet, in our system, practices have become complicated, often ineffective and quite disturbing.

I am researching these issues and offer these thoughts for consideration and as the basis for setting up programs that I believe need to be developed and supported by legislation and implementation.

Society, families, the media, and our education system should encourage, favor, and support domestic, as well as foreign, adoption

There is a definite and ongoing trend for biological mothers, experiencing unplanned pregnancies, to keep their children, instead of placing them for adoption. While this is positive, all too often it means that these children may be raised in poverty, and may be neglected or abused. Extended family members may take them in and try to meet their needs; or all too often, the children end up in our foster care system. We currently have 4,047 children in the Michigan foster care system as of FY 2005.

The fact is that most families who can afford to adopt a domestic infant choose Caucasian babies. There is a large waiting list of people who, perhaps due to infertility, seek to adopt these infants and there are far more waiting families than infant Caucasian children. Inter-racial adoptions are rarely encouraged. According to MARE, Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange, in the United States, there are about 25,000 infants available in a year, and a million parents who seek to adopt them. There is much less interest in the domestic adoptions of older children, and/or those who are not Caucasian. We must increase educational programs, which increase the understanding and acceptance of our diverse society and encourage those seeking to adopt to not see a child as a member of any particular race or color.

Our legal and foster care system is set up to keep biological parents and children together. When children have been removed from the home, I agree that it is important to have this as… an Initial Goal. If they can be successfully reunited, it is best for all involved provided circumstances in the home are beneficial to the child’s welfare

I do not agree, however, that children should remain in our foster care system indefinitely, often going from home to home for years, when it is apparent that their biological parents are unable to care for them appropriately. I believe that there should be stronger evaluations and assessments that are used to determine, with all reasonable certainty and perhaps in a one year time limit, if biological parents are able to learn to parent well and meet the needs of these children. If not, parental rights should be terminated promptly and then, the primary goal would be to find permanent homes in loving, caring and nurturing adoptive families. I am well aware that there are many wonderful foster families and commend them highly for what they do; but permanent homes are what these children want, need and deserve.

The reasons many families are hesitant to adopt these children are caused by the system. Families fear that the children have had too many negative experiences with birth parents and in waiting for the court to terminate. They fear that they may have been moved from one foster home to another for various reasons, and that the children will be too traumatized to be able to successfully integrate into their homes. They may have heard stories of families who were in the process of adopting these children and then the children, suddenly were taken and returned to biological parents. They also fear that birth parents may invade their privacy and seek access to the children even if their rights have been terminated, as there are few measures or repercussions in place, should this happen.

I acknowledge that there are no easy answers to these issues, but our children, and I am focusing now on those in Michigan, deserve better efforts on their behalf. I would propose legislation to encourage changes in our foster care and legal structure. I would propose greater adoption subsidies and funding available for adoptive parents. I would encourage corporations to assist in providing financial grants and benefits for parents who choose to adopt domestically, with a greater emphasis on the countless older domestic children waiting for permanent homes; children who are waiting right here in our own state. I would support increasing education and counseling regarding domestic adoption as a loving, proactive choice for birth and adoptive parents alike.

These concerns have touched me deeply and personally as well and I affirm that I will make every effort to work for positive and effective changes.

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