The religious right aggressively promotes adoption. There is nothing wrong with adoption and many (most?) adoptions are positive for child, birth mother, and adoptive parents. But, few people realize that the adoption process is a lucrative "trade".
It costs a lot of money to have a child, money poor women don't have. Many poor women are prohibited by family members (often parents) from having abortions. The bills from prenatal care and a hospital stay can be large. Medicaid pays in some states, but I would suspect, the situation might sometimes be different if a woman was a minor, and still living with parents.
Hospital stays, and maternity especially, often costs a lot.
If a woman 'gives away' her child, those debts can magically disappear.
I'm not trying to criticize adoption, especially of abandoned children who desperately need families. What I am criticizing is a system out of control that seems to sometimes conspire to separate mothers from children involuntarily.
Money is a big part of that system, and perhaps its one of the reasons the right seems driven to maintain aspects of the current system?
Enter the 'Baby Selling Professional', who, I am pretty sure, is required by law to be associated with a CHURCH.
However, there are NO OTHER REQUIREMENTS for adoption brokers. One can become one with no degree, no training whatsoever. Many people make their livings brokering adoptions. Its a business.
Yes, adoption is a business. There is a flow of babies from poor countries to rich countries and from poor families to rich families. Not surprising- but its complicated and the economic aspect of it is much more important than most people would like to believe.
We could have a debate - I'm not up for it. I just want to explain that I think that money should not be involved to the degree that it is in adoptions, like it should not be involved to the degree it is in medicine.
For example, money is a big factor in deciding who will get a child.
What's the point of this diary? Its this:
Money and the stream of money involved in adoptions may be a significant hidden motivator in any aspect of the health care debate that involves poor women of childbearing age.
And it shouldn't be,