There are two easy steps you can take today to help save international adoptions:
- First, sign our White House petition. The White House promises it will respond if the petition receives 100,000 signatures in 30 days.
- Second, we also invite you to share it on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media platforms and to invite your friends and family (anyone over 13 years of age with an email address can sign)to sign the White House petition.
15 million orphans globally have lost both of their parents.
81 million Americans have considered adoption, but for many it is too complex and too expensive.
International adoptions by Americans have plummeted by 81% since 2004, from about 23,000 adoptions in 2004 to only 4,200 international adoptions budgeted in 2018 by the international adoption accrediting entity. If this dramatic trend in international adoptions by Americans continues, international adoptions may completely end by 2022.
Mary Landrieu, Former United States Senator and former Co-Chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, recently said: “Congress passed the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption believing that this action would pave the way for a more ethical, transparent and streamlined process for inter-country adoption. We were moved by the overwhelming number of abandoned children in the world and their obvious need for loving families. We pushed hard for passage, and the State Department was designated by Congress as the lead for implementing this important initiative. Sadly, several years later, it is clear that this decision was a tragic mistake. Instead of shoring up the process and providing support for sending countries, the State Department has twisted the intent of the treaty to close one country after another. The process has become far more cumbersome and far less transparent. American parents who want to help and lovingly raise a child are often made to feel like criminals. As a result, inter-country adoptions have fallen to an historic low, and they continue to decrease each year as the need of desperate, abandoned, and orphaned children increases. Major change is required now before it’s too late.”
We recognize a child’s right to a family when one is not available in his/her birth country and the loving character of American families. We ask President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo to investigate the causes of the 80% decline in intercountry adoptions since 2004 and to solve the U.S. international adoption crisis. The leadership of the Office of Children’s Issues has been unresponsive to collaborating with adoption community leaders to solve problems and continues to reinterpret regulations in ways unintended by Congress in the Hague Intercountry Adoption Act. The adoption community including agencies, attorneys, adoptive parents, and adoption advocate organizations stands ready to work with the Administration on implementing various achievable solutions that have been identified by adoption leaders.
Together, we will make a difference in the lives of orphans around the world. Thank you.
