Senate Bill 0199 – Sen. Miller. Makes it a Class A misdemeanor to provide adoption services for value, unless you are (generally speaking) the prospective parent, the government, or approved by a court. Adoption services means:
(1) Arranging for the placement of a child.
(2) Identifying a child for adoption.
(3) Matching adoptive parents with biological parents.
(4) Arranging or facilitating an adoption.
(5) Taking or acknowledging consents or surrenders for termination of parental rights for adoption purposes.
(6) Performing background studies on a child who is going to be adopted or adoptive parents.
(7) Making determinations concerning the best interests of a child and the appropriateness in placing the child for adoption.
(8) Postplacement monitoring of a child before the child is adopted.
[tags]SB199-2007, adoption[/tags]
My wife and I have two children, both adopted using adoption facilitiation. I am extremely skeptical of outlawing facilitation in Indiana for the following reasons:
1) Adoption AGENCIES (as opposed to FACILITATORS) are EXTREMELY expensive and certainly do not appreciate the “competition” from facilitators which generally require the adoptive parents to do more of the leg work by themselves, but charge far lower fees. It is unfortunate to have to speak of adoption as a “market”, but it certainly is. Facilitators have been undercutting agencies and thereby making adoption possible for those of modest means, such as my family. Pricing people like us out of the market means that adoption will be an option only for the wealthy. In my opinion, that is a very anti-life position to take and certainly very elitist.
2) Indiana’s adoption laws are among the most favorable to adoptive parents in the United States. Currently law greatly limits the degree to which prospective birth mothers can extract in “expenses” from adoptive families and once relinquishments of rights are signed, Indiana provides no mechanism for a birth parent to change his/her mind later. Again, this bill may not directly impact those things, but the overall impact is to make adoption less feasible for those of less than affluent means.
3) Does this bill target lawyers who, after a birth mother and adoptive family have been matched by a facilitator, then gets the consents and other forms signed? If the goal is to limit adoption services to agencies alone, the net effect will be to drive many potential adoptive families away from that option. That is very sad indeed.
Are there drawbacks to facilitation? Absolutely. A family must be willing to accept much more open communication with the birth mother/parents, usually have to establish lines of communication with her/them before the birth of the child and risk greater emotional pain if it falls through. So-called open adoption is always risky. Some might argue that facilitators do not always provide proper education and counseling to the birth mother, either. However, like anything else in life, all parties need to go into the situation with eyes wide open.
The figures are staggering: Through an agency, expect an adoption to cost at least 20K – 40K. A knowledgeable adoptive family can conclude the same adoption with a private lawyer and facilitator for 6K – 12K, depending on, believe it or not, the race of the child. The darker the skin, the less expensive.
Lurid as this all seems, we have two great children (both with skin considerably darker than ours) because of this method. Without facilitation, it certainly would not be.
Senator Miller’s a nurse. I’m pretty sure most of her medical bills are either her idea of how medical care should be done, or her donors idea of how medical care should be done.
She’s the chairwoman of the “Health & Provider Services” committee, so this bill is all but assured to make to the Senate floor for a vote, and probably through the Senate on party lines.
I don’t always like Sen. Miller’s policies, but she might be the hardest working legislator in the State House — at least she was 10 years ago. Seemed to be 1st in and last out and worked diligently to read the stuff she was being asked to vote on.
In this instance, I don’t know much of anything about adoption facilitators, but Steve lays out a pretty good case against this bill.
Doug,
Having met her, you’re entitled to respect Sen. Miller, but I see little to admire in diligence and dedication to immoral ends. You’ve posted 3 proposed Senate bills in a row from Sen. Miller, all of which seem calculated to minimize women’s reproductive options, and moreover, their reproductive rights.
Imagine what that energy could accomplish if employed in service of individual empowerment.