Why Infant Adoption Awareness Training Must Be Ended
Many people both married and single in the United States hope to adopt an infant. Now that most mothers have the support of family to keep their sons and daughters, should the government fund a program designed to make them available for adoption instead?
Marion, IA (PRWEB) September 7, 2004 -- There is a large "market" in the
United States for babies for adoption. With the reduced stigma associated with
single motherhood since the 1970s more mothers are keeping and nurturing their
own children. Frequently they have the help of their babies’ fathers,
grandparents and others. Grandparents speak of the joy an unexpected grandchild
has brought into their lives.
One method being used to “find” more
babies for prospective adopters is the federally funded Infant Adoption
Awareness Training and advertising that is currently sweeping the country.
On October 17, 2000 the U.S. Congress, under Public Law 103-310, amended
the Public Health Services Act to authorize specific activities pertaining to
Infant Adoption Awareness (title XII, Subtitle A). The legislation requires the
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to award grants
“To develop and implement programs to train designated staff of eligible health
centers in providing adoption information and referrals to pregnant women on an
equal basis with all other courses of action included in non-directive
counseling to pregnant women.”
Over $9 million per year is budgeted for
Infant Adoption Awareness Training Programs through grants, the greatest portion
of which has gone to the National Council For Adoption, a membership
organization of adoption agencies.
Is the goal of non-directive
counseling being met? Are women’s rights to honest information upon which to
base their own decision being upheld or is the decision being made for
them?
The brochure provided by the NCFA says the good news is they have
trained more than 11,000 individuals to date. In addition, “According to Nielsen
tracking service, local television stations donated more than $778,000 worth of
airtime just since May of this year (not counting the networks such as ABC, CNN,
and Lifetime). Outdoor advertising giants Viacom and Lamar are providing highway
billboards, and radio stations and other media outlets are helping to say very
publicly ‘Thanks for considering Adoption.’ "
The brochure tells of one
Master Trainer, a caseworker for the Gladney Center for Adoption, who spoke
daily to a pregnant mother on the phone and then when her baby was born traveled
all the way across West Texas to be with her “in her time of need” using
“compassion and many of the counseling tools and techniques” from the training
to “help” the mother make “her” decision. So as a result of the IAA training
when a mom decides that she wants to keep her own son or daughter, a
“professional” will be there to make a “powerful impact”.
Are the known
risks as well as the advantages of surrendering a child to adoption being
provided to these mostly young, naïve women?
In “Postadoptive reactions
of the relinquishing mother: a review” by H. A. Askren and K. C. Bloom published
in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecological and Neonatal Nursing, 1999 Jul-Aug;
volume 28, issue 4: "The relinquishing mother is at risk for long-term physical,
psychologic, and social repercussions. Although interventions have been
proposed, little is known about their effectiveness in preventing or alleviating
these repercussions."
“My mother didn’t want me.” stated one adoptee who
was nevertheless compelled to search. Some adoptees have been known to say they
consider themselves to be a 9-month abortion.
Infant Adoption Awareness
Training attendees are told they should speak positively to a pregnant woman
about the “adoption option”, conduct an interest survey, and refer her to
adoption agencies for more information. The interest survey is worded in such a
way that it will lead a naïve young woman to say she might be interested in
talking to someone about adoption. People eligible for the training are those
who have little background with adoption or adoption counseling, thus
contributing to the likelihood there will be no dissenting opinion during the
sessions.
During training, an adoptee or a natural mother who has been
hand-picked to promote adoption may be available to speak. Completely
discredited are the experiences and insights of any adoptee who seeks her
origins or any mother who is badly affected by the loss of her child; The
trainers claim such people are “ill” or just using adoption as a “cover-up” for
some other problem they have.
What do these people who are “ill”, the
mothers whose children were adopted-out years ago and adoptees who search for
the mothers they have been separated from for so long, have to say?
Ronna
Smith, an Oklahoma resident whose son was adopted-out in 1978 observes:
“Considering adoption? From what I see in the workbook, pregnant women have no
chance of getting out of adoption.”
“Nurses, counselors,teachers and
anyone working with youth that will come into contact with pregnant teens or
women are strongly recruited for this training. This IAA program is purposely
taking away from pregnant women every support person or system including all
family members, friends and the baby’s father. Mothers will not be told of any
government programs or any other resource that might help them. Trainees are
taught to focus a mother’s attention on her inadequacies. Then they
psychologically turn it around to make a pregnant girl or woman believe she has
‘chosen’ adoption when she may have just wanted general information.”
“Those of us who have been through it know what coercion is. We know the
effect adoption has on ourselves and our children. We want this stopped.
Instead, there should be a law that would disallow an adoption
so-called-specialist to contact a mother once she has said 'no' or even voiced
the feelings of doubt about adoption.”
Samantha Franklin, Certified
Rehabilitation Counselor and adoptee, attended the IAA training. She states:
“The information presented in both written and oral form in this national
federally-funded program does not meet the standards for unbiased and ethical
counseling practices. They presented methods to ‘convince’ a pregnant women that
adoption is the best option for her and her baby. They did not provide any other
options or reasons to help a young mother to choose to parent her
child.” Franklin points out that spending government
funds on “unethical counseling and training practices to the tune of millions of
American's tax dollars” on infant adoption does nothing for children who are
truly in need of homes.
According to Franklin, more funding needs to be
given for post-adoption services instead of promoting infant adoption. In
addition, she believes adult adoptees have a right to access to their records.
After she went through the “humiliating process” of petitioning the courts for
her birth and adoption information, she discovered that her natural mother had
died ten years prior while searching for her to give her important medical
information. “Adult adoptees should not be treated as perpetual children or
criminals for wanting to know their own information. It is important for both
the adoptee and the adoptee's children.”
NCFA represents the interests of
some of the most backward agencies in the adoption industry. Their website says
they’re opposed to fathers being given “power to block” the adoptions of their
own children. The NCFA president, Thomas Atwood, says mothers want
confidentiality. The truth is that the secrecy is for the adopters; that’s what
they pay top dollar for or make the big donations for. The more ethical agencies
will tell you it’s the mothers who push for openness. Secrecy, lies and
separation from natural family can cause real problems for
adoptees.
Mothers not only want openness, they nearly always want their
children. Mothers, fathers and their parents may not know much about adoption
except for all the advertising promoting it. They deserve honest information and
the opportunity to make their own decision regarding their child’s
future.
The Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program must be ended. Not
only is the goal of non-directive counseling for women not being met but
mother’s rights, father’s rights and a child’s right to remain with her own
family are all being violated.
Contact Information:
Laurie
Frisch
(319) 373-7479
e-mail protected from spam bots
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/9/prweb154642.htm