Adoption Coercion Eliminates Choice

Adoption coercion is any form of overt or covert pressure, manipulation, convincing, force, fraud, human rights violation, or withholding of resources that results in a woman surrendering a baby for adoption. Adoption coercion includes any practice specifically designed to ensure or significantly increase the odds that a mother will surrender her baby for adoption.
Origins America

Study after study shows that the majority of women who have surrendered babies for adoption were coerced into surrendering. These are findings from some of these studies. In a PhD dissertation study by social worker Michael DeSimone (1994), 46.1% of mothers surveyed stated that the surrender of their child was "not at all" their decision, and 17.5% stated it was "a little."
Healing and Restoring Families Dismembered by Adoption

Below is a list of some common practices used systemically by the adoption industry on unwed mothers (and grandparents-to-be) in English-speaking nations from about 1950-onwards, as means of obtaining babies for adoption. These tactics might variously have been applied by social workers, clergy, "adoption facilitators," nurses, nuns, clergy, doctors or others with a vested interest in obtaining a baby to broker for adoption.
Exiled Mothers

Below is a list of some common practices used systemically by the adoption industry on "unwed mothers" in Canada from about 1950-onwards, as means of obtaining babies for adoption. Many of these methods may have been applied to you by social workers, clergy, nurses, nuns, clergy, doctors, Children's Aid Societies, and others with a vested interest in obtaining a baby for adoption.
Origins Canada

Now in the power of the adoption industry, this term is used not only to psychologically destroy the existence of the natural mother, but also as a tool of coercion for use on pregnant youth and women. By labelling a pregnant woman a “birthmother” before birth, the adoption industry now has a powerful weapon in hand.
Origins Canada

What the Adoption Agencies & Professionals Don't Want You to Know About Adoption in the USA. The problem is that adoption is a business, a big business.
*Musings of the Lame, Claudia Corrigan D'Arcy *

The subtle coercion in adoption counseling often does not seem real. "Coercion" is such a harsh word. Adoption is seen as a decision, a wise choice; made by selfless mothers, for the good of others, for the betterment of her child. We give up our babies for adoption.
Musings of the Lame, Claudia Corrigan D'Arcy

Information often withheld from mothers about the damage she will endure the rest of her life.
Every mother should be provided this information before a true decision can be make.
Mental Health Damage to Mothers / Origins Inc

The recent cases of Baby Veronica and Baby Desaray make me fear for young adoptive children, especially those of color. The similarities of these two cases, including the same adoption agency attorney in both, demand a closer look into these children's civil rights....
Indian Country

The problems surrounding many intercountry adoptions in which children are taken from poor families in undeveloped countries and given to parents in developed countries, have become quite well known, but the Special Rapporteur was alarmed to hear of certain practices within developed countries, including the use of fraud and coercion to persuade single mothers to give up their children.
Origins Canada

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , expectant and new mothers have the right to the support and protection they require in order to keep their babies, without fear that they will lose their babies due to poverty, lack of resources or support, or adoption industry coercion.
Origins Canada

The subtle coercion in adoption counseling often does not seem real. "Coercion" is such a harsh word. Adoption is seen as a decision, a wise choice; made by selfless mothers, for the good of others, for the betterment of her child. We place our babies for adoption.
Claudia Corrigan D'Arcy

I like to think that no prospective adoptive parent wants to adopt a baby whose mother really wanted to keep him--and might have done, with the right kind of support. But adoption agencies by and large are in the business of adoption. They are not in the business of counseling or supporting women who find...
Peter's Cross Station, Shannon LC Cate

"Coercion of any kind negates choice, informed or otherwise ." W hen just even a hint of coercion exists, there can never be true choice. You can try to wrap it up in a pretty bow, sprinkle some sugar on it to make it sweeter, but it will never change the fact that the moment coercion enters the equation, in any way, choice leaves it.
Adoption Truth

Though many of the old tactics used to procure babies from unwilling mothers have been abandoned, the new methods employed by crisis pregnancy centers, adoption agencies, and prospective adopters are hardly more ethical than the ones used during the recognized era of forced adoptions. From conception to birth, here are the top five ways in which socially vulnerable women are pressured toward surrender.
Jessica DelBalzo

Bethany, it turned out, did not simply specialize in counseling pregnant women. It is the nation's largest adoption agency, with more than eighty-five offices in fifteen countries.
When Jordan arrived, a counselor began asking whether she'd considered adoption and talking about the poverty rates of single mothers. Over five counseling sessions....,
Kathryn Joyce

REVIEWS, read about others experiences with this agency.

I’m concerned that the conversation about forced adoption is being framed in such a way as to imply that adoption coercion is a relic from the past. I’m concerned that mothers who lost children to more recent unethical practices are discouraged from sharing their stories in order to support this conclusion. I’m concerned that women who might consider adoption now or in the future will incorrectly believe that today’s agencies and facilitators are above reproach because reports say that coerced adoption ended in the seventies. While its true that contraception and abortion access have reduced the number of infants being surrendered for adoption in recent years, corruption is ever-present.
Jessica DelBalzo

He'd never know how desperately I didn't want to go through with this adoption. The story he'd hear would be one that spoke of my so-called selflessness, the joy of his adoptive parents and their families. He wouldn't be told that his biological mother was coerced into adoption, and that she hadn't really wanted to go through with it in the first place. He wouldn't be told that his mother ultimately had no choice.
DANIELLE BARNSLEY

Where there is demand, someone is going to attempt to provide the "supply". Adoption is a very profitable business for the various adoption agencies, facilitators and go-betweens. Darlene Gerow, of Concerned United Birthparents, cites an industry analysis performed by Marketdata Enterprises Inc. of Tampa, Florida, stating that adoption provider revenues in 2000 were $1.44 billion with a projected industry annual growth rate of 11.5% to 2004. That is a lot of incentive to secure the product for the buying customers. From this profit motive on the one hand, and the fierce competition among prospective adoptive parents for the few adoptable infants being born on the other hand, have sprung a variety of practices designed to mentally manipulate women into "making an adoption plan". Here are just a few:
Josee Larose

Pre-birth matching of expecting mothers and prospective adoptive parents is pretty commonplace in domestic infant adoption these days. From an outsider's perspective, it makes sense if 2 parties are entering into an open adoption agreement that they should get to know each other before committing to a lifelong relationship. It would also make sense that a mother considering adoption would want to know a little bit about the people who will be raising her child. Unfortunately, this practice is ripe for unethical behavior and manipulation.
Out of the First Mom Closet

So many times I have heard first moms arguing among themselves in support groups about how things are different now than they were during the baby scoop era. I beg to differ. While the procedures, tactics and policies of agencies and attorneys are definitely very different, the end goal is the same and the tactics...
musings of a birthmom

This archive contains coerced adoption cases.
Tamia, Barbara landry, Carri Stearns, Darcy Akers Ball, David and Heather Vogels, Evelyn Bennett, Jessica Hannah Bowman, Krista Stoner, Lea Tyler Darrah, Winnie Faye Higginbotham Yarber (now Winnie Faye Whitaker)
Pound Pup Legacy

Carmen McDonald, suffering from post-partum depression and bipolar disorder, felt overwhelmed, and in a weak moment called an 800 number she found for 'A Cherished Child' to explore the possibility of placing her child for adoption. She and her
| Pound Pup Legacy

19-year-old woman claims she was pressured by the Edna Gladney Home for unwed mothers (later renamed in Gladney Center for Adoption) to give up her child and wasn't awared a "cooling-off period" after signing the papers.Date:
| Pound Pup Legacy