mi casa, su casa

See... this is one of the main arguments pro-life has, that I have a serious problem with.

'Hey if you don't want to have your baby... no problem, just put it up for adoption...'

Yeah, well how about them apples??? (see article below.) It's this sort of thing that infuriates me, because you have to ask... Where is the sanctity of life here?

Sorry for the rant. The article is informative nonetheless.

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Report: 100,000 kids await adoption
Nearly every state has problems in child welfare agencies
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 Posted: 10:03 AM EST (1503 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 100,000 children who have been abused or neglected by their biological parents are languishing in foster care, waiting to be adopted. The explanations are practically universal, with nearly every state facing the same problems in running its child welfare agency, a report finds.

Among the problems: Agencies and courts are reluctant to terminate the legal rights of biological parents, and states have trouble finding adoptive parents, particularly for older kids, kids with siblings, children with behavior problems and black kids.

The report was commissioned by a coalition of nonprofits groups and companies that support National Adoption Day, designated as Saturday. The research was done by the Urban Institute, a think tank that focuses on social issues.

"It is our hope that with this new research, states can learn from each other," said Rita Soronen, executive director of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, one of the sponsors.

The report uses data from the Child and Family Service Reviews -- detailed and rigorous examinations of each state's child welfare system used to evaluate each state's system for protecting children from abuse and neglect.

Overall, not one state has passed the new tests. Seven states were in compliance with two of seven main standards, and 20 states plus the District of Columbia were in compliance with one of them. Twenty-three states failed all seven.

Wednesday's report focuses on the data surrounding adoption. In this case, just six states have met standards -- making sufficient effort to finalize adoptions and moving kids quickly into new homes.

At the same time, adoption rates have gone up in recent years, noted Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families in the Department of Health and Human Services. Still, he said, more must be done.

"There continues to be unfortunate barriers to adopting kids out of foster care," he said.

The new report analyzed detailed state data for trends that might explain why so many states have problems getting foster children adopted.

It found several. Among them:

Forty-eight states said they had trouble terminating the legal rights of biological parents, which must be done before an adoption can go through. Courts must approve these requests.

Sometimes parents didn't get services they were supposed to, like substance abuse counseling, and courts are loath to cut them off legally from their children until they have a chance to put their lives together. Other times an agency doesn't want to create a "legal orphan" by removing the biological parent if an adoptive parent has not been found.

Forty-seven states said they have trouble recruiting adoptive parents. This is particularly true for children who must be placed in sibling groups, who are older or who have behavior problems. It's also tough to place black children in homes, particularly if the agency is trying to find a black home for black children.

Forty-three states report trouble with staffing. This includes high turnover of staff, which requires new workers to start from the beginning; large caseloads; insufficient training; lack of communication with courts and incomplete records.

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Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.

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