Adoption Nation
review by Maureen Hogan
September 26, 2000

Dear Friends,

A few months ago I had the privileged of reviewing an advance copy of the forthcoming book, Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America by Adam Pertman. As many of you know, Adam is a Pulitzer nominated reporter for the Boston Globe, whose writing has already made an enormously positive impact on adoption policy development, especially in the recent campaign to ratify the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Adam's book, which is published by Basic Books, will be available in a few days.

As a lobbyist, I am always looking for readable, accessible material that can be used to educate policymakers on complicated issues. Now and forever, Adoption Nation, will be that resource in any discussion of adoption whether in the executive, legislative or judicial branches of government. Adoption Nation should be required reading for anyone with any power to impact adoption policy at the state, national or international level.

For perhaps the first time, someone has woven the multitude of seemingly unrelated adoption issues, and the seemingly unrelated "factions" in adoption into a single tapestry. At long last, someone has taken on the collision of policy and financial interests between private infant, international and special needs adoptions. Pertman takes on the adoption community's failure to address a myriad of pressing issues or to protect adopted children and their families (both birth and adoptive) from ongoing exploitation by a multi billion dollar industry that is almost entirely unregulated . Adoption Nation takes on money, power, identity and accountability. Perhaps most importantly, Pertman, who is also an adoptive parent, faces down the myths around "open" v. "closed" adoption.

Get your hands on Adoption Nation! Order it today, either from your local bookseller or Amazon or Barnes and Noble online. More importantly, though, don't just buy it for yourself. Send copies to your legislators, both in Congress and your state legislatures. Send it to your state attorney general, the director of your state child welfare agency and state adoption department.

Make sure that members of the judiciary in your state have copies. Donate copies to your public and school libraries.

For too long, adoption has limped along in this country as a "convenient" social practice. It has been viewed as a benevolent philanthropic practice, with little or no examination of adoption and "child welfare" as a big business. Until Pertman's book few people have carefully examined the conflicts and hypocrisy among the various "interests" in the adoption community.

At a time when the US government regulates everything from whales to snail darters to guns and speed limits, now is the time to demand that both the US and state governments regulate all adoptions effectively.

At a time when the US government subsidizes everything from abortions to food production and bans the sale of organs and fetal body parts, now is the time to attack the outrageous and rising costs of adoption.

At a time when American children languish in foster care legally free for adoption, it is time to make sure it is as easy to adoption a child in California as it is from other countries. At the same time, we should ensure that children from other countries and their birth parents receive the same protections from human rights abuses we accord to American children and their birth families.

At a time when children adopted both from foster care here and abroad are entering or reentering foster care in this country because prospective parents do not understand issues related to institutionalization, it is time to demand that all adoptive families are educated prior to adopting and supported after their adoptions are finalized.

At a time when millions of American families are desperate to adopt, we should be asking ourselves why we are actually exporting American children to other countries for adoption.

At a time when the debate about life has never been more intense but less than 2% of young women facing unplanned pregnancies chose adoption, now is the time to challenge both pro life and pro choice interests, to support affirmative adoption education for young people.

And at a time when an alarming number of states are rushing to legalize infant abandonment with no safeguards for confused young women and their children, we should all be examining how it is that we have made adoption seem so distasteful and scary to young women who do not want to have abortions that they would rather leave their babies in dumpsters than make adoption plans.

Adoption Nation should have the same impact on adoption policy that Rachel Carson's Silent Spring had on the environmental movement. It is, quite simply, the most important book ever written on the subject. It is a challenge to all of us.

Maureen Hogan

Please feel free to share this message with anyone who might be interested.

back to top