Mothers Overlooked

As society honors and celebrates mothers and mother-figures on Mother’s Day, there is one segment of mothers that continues to be overlooked and disregarded. These are the mothers who have relinquished their children for adoption.

Who are these mothers who relinquish their children for adoption? In the book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood, sociologist Gretchen Sisson, PhD identified that poverty, constraint, and lack of resources are common reasons why mothers make the heart wrenching decision to relinquish their children for adoption.

Adoption is multi-billion dollar a year industry in the United States. Some adoption professionals, and anti-abortion proponents, promote adoption as an “empowering” choice. It is difficult to see adoption as empowering choice when a marginalized, vulnerable pregnant person is making an adoption plan out of fear and desperation.

As a society, we must do more to protect these disenfranchised mothers, and their children, from being take advantage of by the adoption industry. The narrative around adoption must change, especially if the majority of mothers are relinquishing their children because of systemic barriers. Adoption is a complex and nuanced issue that should be looked at through a critical and compassionate lens. It is time to have these conversations, even if they are uncomfortable and challenge long held, and sometimes personal, ideas about adoption.

Rather than celebrating the separation of families due to systemic barriers, we should strive for a world to reduce unnecessary adoptions and so children can remain with their biological families.