Recent laws aim to provide support for birth mothers and educate young people.
By Susan Klemond Nation
Published November 15, 2024 in the National Catholic Register
After an election season dominated by abortion rhetoric, leaders of adoption organizations hope that other states will follow the latest lead: Idaho enacted this year several laws to support modern private adoption and educate young people about this life-giving option — while assisting moms in choosing life.
One reason the legislation gained traction in the Gem State is its family-friendly culture. It also was one of 13 states that had laws set to restrict or ban abortion in the event that Roe v. Wade was overturned. Idaho’s two laws restricting abortion constitute a near-total ban, with exceptions for rape and incest or to prevent the mother’s death. The ban was contested at the U.S. Supreme Court and revised this summer as a result.
About 3 million women in the U.S. face unintended pregnancies annually, according to Terri Marcroft, founder of Unplanned Good, a Boise, Idaho-based nonprofit that promotes mainly private adoption, who helped develop and promote passage of the Idaho laws. Marcroft cited a consensus figure among adoption organizations; the Centers for Disease Control number is closer to 3.5 million, though this tally may have been calculated differently. About 820,000 of these women are under age 18, according to Marcroft.
The state’s first new adoption law requires that public middle- and high-school students be taught about adoption in health or sex-education classes if contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases and infections also are discussed, Marcroft said. It also requires college clinics to give adoption information to women inquiring about contraceptives or STD/STIs.
“We're hoping to build the awareness about adoption and help people to understand open adoption,” she said. “Let [students] know now about how adoption works … in a calm environment when they’re not in crisis mode.”
The two other Idaho adoption laws require that adoption facilitators be licensed to reduce adoption-related fraud, from out-of-state or unlicensed or uncertified providers, and also removing a limit on reimbursing birth mothers’ expenses, she explained.
The Adoption Landscape
Every day, moms like Dominique White in Texas (see blog story) face unexpected pregnancies, though few decide to place their babies up for adoption as she did.
Private domestic adoptions are those in which birth mothers or parents voluntarily place their child for adoption. Private adoption fees vary may range from $30,000 to $60,000, according to a fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children’s Bureau.
Public agency adoptions involve permanent placement of children in foster care, while inter-country adoptions of children from outside the U.S. are handled by the federal government.
Last year in the U.S. there were an estimated 50,000 private adoptions, more than 66,000 through the foster system and fewer than 3,000 inter-country adoptions, according to recent statistics.
Most adoptions are now open, meaning that birth mothers choose whether to adopt and who should adopt their baby, differences that empower them to consider the baby’s welfare, Marcroft said, adding that, in the past 25 years, society has become aware that birth mothers are harmed when they’re not included in adoption decisions.
The legitimate choice of adoption shouldn’t be secret and should be taught holistically when people are not needing to make a decision, agreed Ryan Hanlon, president and CEO of Alexandria, Virginia-based National Council for Adoption, which provides resources to all impacted by adoption across the lifespan.
Heather Featherston, vice president of Lifetime Adoption, an adoption agency in New Port Ritchie, Florida, educates physicians, clinics, pregnancy centers and maternity homes on adoption and assists pregnant women.
Adoption, Featherston said, “is a hard and selfless choice, but all [unplanned pregnancy] choices are hard. Being a mother is hard, especially if you’re not equipped,” adding: “Living with the choice of abortion your entire life is hard. I would like to see, before a woman can consent to an abortion, even if it’s with the abortion pill, that she needs to fully understand her options, not just with parenting, but also her choices, options and adoption.”
“You can choose the parents that adopt your baby,” Featherston emphasizes to women considering adoption. “You could talk to them, get to know them before you make your decision. You can choose to have contact after adoption; it can be letters and pictures, texting, video chat, in-person visits or social media. You can choose how things go at the hospital. You can see and hold your baby. You can decide who’s in the delivery room and who cuts the [umbilical] cord. Those are all your choices.”
Benefits for Everyone
Acknowledging that adoption has its own difficulties, advocates emphasized that it empowers birth mothers to make choices that benefit their children.
And it also benefits adoptive families.
Matt and Adrianna Birk of West St. Paul, Minnesota, already had six biological children when they decided pursue adoption. They were surprised and happy to learn that, on the same day, two Arizona birth mothers chose to place their babies after seeing the family’s profile through an adoption attorney. The Birks hoped to adopt two children so they wouldn’t feel alone among their biological kids, Adrianna said.
The adoptions have presented challenges but the couple said they couldn’t imagine their family without their two youngest sons, who were born seven months apart and are now 8 years old.
One of the boys is in fairly regular contact with his birth family, due to it being an “open” adoption, which has been confusing to the other sibling whose birth family chose a “closed” adoption and so no contact, Adrianna said.
The Birks have been able to navigate the cost of their private adoptions, but Matt Birk, a former NFL football player and Super Bowl winner who has also been active in pro-life causes and Minnesota politics, said he hopes the Idaho laws will raise adoption awareness and accessibility for more families.
Promoting Adoption Nationwide
Marcroft hopes to build on this year’s success in Idaho with more adoption legislation in 2025 covering:
Authorizing the placement of babies surrendered to “safe havens” in private adoption rather than foster care;
expediting adoption court hearings;
regulating therapists who counsel birth mothers;
making post-adoption contact agreements court-enforceable, and
requiring schools to offer fetal-development education.
Whether or not all the bills become law in Idaho, Marcroft said they could serve as templates for other states.
States that already have laws mandating adoption education include South Carolina, Utah, Michigan, Louisiana, Virginia, Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas.
An adoption-education bill similar to Idaho’s will be introduced in the California Legislature early next year, said Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council.
“California Family Council is eager to champion Terri Marcroft’s proposal to ensure public schools teach adoption as a life-affirming alternative to abortion,” he said in a statement to the Register. “We’re fully committed to working with legislators over the next few months to introduce this bill when the session opens in January.”
Oregon hopes to replicate Idaho’s legislation, according to Britt Ivy Boice, a former TV host, coach, author and speaker who works as chief of staff for her husband, Oregon state Rep. Court Boice. She assisted in drafting pro-adoption provisions in legislation that will be before the state’s Legislature next year.
“Many people still think it's so difficult, like why even try?” she said. “Because of the olden-day stories of you wait for years and get your hopes up and you may never get a child, I think that may have something to do with it.”
Rep. Boice’s legislation includes establishing safe havens for newborns and tax relief for families with at least four children, including adopted children, according to Britt Ivy Boice.
Religion’s Role
Along with lawmakers, priests and pastors could help the public understand adoption, Marcroft said.
“I would really love to see more people talk about it from the pulpit of churches,” she said. “Imagine if the Mass homily is about embracing those women and encouraging them to do the brave thing instead of judging them and reprimanding them for their behavior.” The U.S. bishops’ Walking With Moms in Need is also a positive initiative to help mothers.
Birth mothers who choose adoption “feel like they’ve accomplished something huge,” Marcroft underscored.
“They’ve created another family, and then they get to participate in that family,” she said. “They wouldn’t change a thing in hindsight, but really, having that big-picture perspective on it is not something that a 17-year-old is typically capable of without encouragement and mentorship of an older person in their life.”
When birth mothers choose adoption, they are placing a miracle into an adoptive couple or family’s life, Matt Birk said.
“All life is a miracle,” he said. “But when you think that this woman, under whatever circumstances, became pregnant and chose adoption and somehow that child found its way to you, it’s incredible. It’s always like God worked a little harder to get that child to your family.”
Susan Klemond Susan Klemond is a freelance writer living in West St. Paul, Minnesota, who writes news and feature articles for the Register, OSV Newsweekly and The Catholic Spirit, the archdiocesan paper for St. Paul-Minneapolis. She also has worked in marketing, editing and magazine production.