Every year the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute(CCAI) organizes a gala where Members of Congress can give an Angel in Adoption Award ^TM to constituents of their state or district who have been advocates for adoption.

Originally intended to champion the adoption of children from foster care, the Angels in Adoption Awards have grown into an adoption industry love-fest, awarding adoption attorney's, directors of adoption agencies and other representatives of the adoption industry.

Many of the recipients of the Angels in Adoption Awards have nothing to do with adoption from foster care, and their main achievement is making a sound business out of the commerce in children.

In 2007 Pound Pup Legacy instituted the annual Demons of Adoption Awards to raise a voice against adoption propaganda and the self congratulatory practices of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's annual Angels in Adoption Awards.

Until September 30 you, the reader, can nominate candidates for the sixth annual Demons of Adoption Award. After that date, PPL will post a poll where readers may vote for the nominees.

The link for nominations may be found at: http://poundpuplegacy.org/sixth_demons_of_adoption_nominations

When posting, please state your nominee and a short explanation as to why this candidate has the dubious honor of winning the award.

Previous editions:

First Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to the National Council for Adoption)
Second Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to the makers of Juno)
Third Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to Bethany Christian Services)
Fourth Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to Joint Council on International Children's Services)
Fifth Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)

Today is November 1, marking the start  of Adoption Awareness Month. For Pound Pup Legacy this marks the day to announce the “winner” of the Demons of Adoption Awards.

The Demons of Adoption Awards have grown into an anticipated annual event, followed by many in the adoption community, and is a critical voice kicking off Adoption Awareness Month.

Every year the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute(CCAI) organizes a gala where Members of Congress can give an Angel in Adoption Award ^TM to constituents of their state or district who have been advocates for adoption.

Originally intended to champion the adoption of children from foster care, the Angels in Adoption Awards have grown into an adoption industry love-fest, awarding adoption attorney's, directors of adoption agencies and other representatives of the adoption industry.

Many of the recipients of the Angels in Adoption Awards have nothing to do with adoption from foster care, and their main achievement is making a sound business out of the commerce in children.

In 2007 Pound Pup Legacy instituted the annual Demons of Adoption Awards to raise a voice against adoption propaganda and the self congratulatory practices of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's annual Angels in Adoption Awards.

Until September 30 you, the reader, can nominate candidates for the fifth annual Demons of Adoption Award. After that date, PPL will post a poll where readers may vote for the nominees.

The link for nominations may be found at: http://poundpuplegacy.org/fifth_demons_of_adoption_nominations

When posting, please state your nominee and a short explanation as to why this candidate has the dubious honor of winning the award.

Previous editions:

First Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to the National Council for Adoption)
Second Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to the makers of Juno)
Third Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to Bethany Christian Services)
Fourth Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to Joint Council on International Children's Services)

When Pound Pup Legacy started the Demons of Adoption Awards in 2007, it was very much a spur-of-the-moment action, triggered by the sugar coated news surrounding the Congressional Angels of Adoption Awards^TM. Over the last couple of years the Demons of Adoption Awards have grown into an anticipated annual event, followed by many in the adoption community, and a critical voice kicking off Adoption Awareness Month.

This year we want to add an even more sobering element to the start of the adoption love-fest, introducing Rohnor's Angels, honoring those children who died this year due to abuse in their forever family.

Over the years we have documented abuse in adoptive families and raised awareness for increased safety in placement procedures. Despite our efforts, every year several children die at the hands of their adopters and many more are physically or sexually abused. Rohnor's Angels is part of our ongoing effort to make the public more aware that, even when many outcomes appear to be good, adoption practices continue to be unsafe and reform is still needed to serve the best interest of children.

This year's edition of the Demons of Adoption awards drew unprecedented attention. Several bloggers raised awareness for the awards and helped by posting PPL links to their pages, encouraging readers to vote for their preferred Demon of Adoption. As a result we can proudly state that this year 70% more votes were cast than in any previous edition.

Readers of Pound Pup Legacy nominated 14 candidates, all "worthy" candidates to receive the Demons of Adoption Awards. A full month of polling showed a clear neck and neck race between two contestants: LDS Family Services and the Joint Council on International Children’s Services. The two nominees constantly remained within a few votes of one another, leaving all other nominees far behind.

Two days ago we started the nominations for the Annual Demons of Adoption Awards for the fourth time in succession. As much as we like that we do this every year, and how much we love to point out the "bad guys" in adoption, it's also important to realize that the adoption system itself is most evil of all and that pointing out a few "bad guys" is not going to solve the ethical problems related to adoption.

In 2007 Pound Pup Legacy instituted the annual Demons of Adoption Award to raise a voice against adoption propaganda and the self congratulatory practices of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's annual Angels in Adoption Awards ^TM.

Until September 30 you can nominate candidates for the fourth annual Demons of Adoption Award, after which we will put up a poll to vote for the nominees. Please add a comment to this post with your nominee and a short explanation why this candidate has the dubious honor of winning the award. You can also email your nomination to this address.

Previous editions:

First Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to the National Council for Adoption)
Second Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to the makers of Juno)
Third Annual Demons of Adoption Awards (award went to Bethany Christian Services)

Every year the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) presents the annual Angels in Adoption Awards^TM, an award for those, who according to CCAI, made a contribution to the promotion of adoption of children from the American foster care system and other "orphans" world wide.

While presenting adoption as nothing but a good cause, CCAI is in effect one of the few industry lobbying groups in Washington that actually consists of active members of congress. It is a well known practice that politicians, after leaving office, join lobbying firms to further the interests of particular industries. CCAI is exceptional in that it looks out for the interests of an industry, while its members are still being in office.

Much more than a good cause, adoption is a largely unregulated business that offers jobs for ten thousands of people working for thousands of organizations directly or indirectly involved in the placement of children. It also provides children for families that usually are affluent and likely to be voting constituents. For legislators, there is much to be gained by making adoption as easy a process as possible, while politically there is not much to be gained by promoting stricter regulation.

The incestuous relationship between the adoption industry and members of congress, has led to the creation of the annual Angels in Adoption Awards^TM, which are given to more than a hundred individuals, couples and organizations, every year. The awards are presented during a gala, taking place at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington DC, sponsored by the Freddie Mac Foundation, corporations like Chevron, SUPERVALU, Dow Chemical and adoption agencies such as Holt International Children's Services and Bethany Christian Services.

Many of the recipients of the award are couples that adopted children, some of which after having opened their house to many foster children first, but others mainly for adopting through one of the agencies that sponsor the Angels of Adoption Awards^TM.

Of course CCAI not only honors the customers of the industry, but also the businesses involved in Adoption.

Long time sponsor, Holt International Children's Services is a recurrent recipient of the award, through several volunteers and such employees as: Susan Soon-Keum Cox, Lynn Sims, Patricia Keltie, Rose McBride, Todd Kwapisz and Yue Jian Chen and through its co-founder Bertha Holt. America's largest adoption agency Bethany Christian Services, also a long time sponsor of the event, was awarded through such employees as Belinda Geertsma, Renee Eggebraaten, Peggy Lowe, Joann E. King, Pat Wheeler and Sandra McLaughlin and its branch office in Fredericksburg and in Hampton Roads. The latter even received the award twice, once in 2003 and once in 2008.

There are several other adoption agencies directly or indirectly honored with the award, but by far the largest adoption industry related group of recipients are adoption attorneys: Albert G. Lirhus, David J. Radis, Donald C. Cofsky, Edith H. Morris, Gene Kelley, Herbert A. Brail, Herbert D. Friedman, Irene Steffas, James Fletcher Thompson, Jeanine Castagna. Jeanne Tate, Jodi Sue Rutstein, Larry S Jenkins, Marc D. Widelock, Martin W. Bauer, Michael Shorstein, Michele Jordan, Michele Zavos. Seth A. Grob. Stephen W. Hayes. Steven B. Sacharow, Steven M. Kirsh and Thomas Taneffare only some of the adoption attorneys that have received the Angel in Adoption Award ^TM.

All of these people received the award merely for having run an adoption associated business. After all, adoption attorneys work for profit and many, if not all of them, are very much involved in domestic infant adoption. This line of business has nothing to do with helping children from foster care and  "orphans" world wide to find families. For attorneys, domestic adoption is a far more lucrative form of adoption than either inter-country adoption or foster care adoption.

At least five Angels in Adoptions were awarded to people working for anti-abortion pregnancy counseling centers, Lisa Gould (Ark-La-Tex Crisis Pregnancy Center), Tami Wessen (Riverside Life Services), Tracy Okus (Women’s Pregnancy Center of Ocala), Barbara Beavers (Center for Pregnancy Choices) and Cheryl Bauman (Crisis Pregnancy Outreach).

Anti-abortion pregnancy counseling centers have been a growing phenomenon since their invention in the early 1970's and are one of the main suppliers of infants for the adoption industry. With more than 1100 anti-abortion pregnancy counseling centers, Heartbeat International is one of the largest supply chains of infants. Three out of the five aforementioned, Angel in Adoption receiving centers, is an affiliate of Heartbeat International, and so is the subject of this article, Bethany Christian Services.

Like many adoption agencies, Bethany Christian Services started as an amateur run organization when in 1944, Mary DeBoer and Margueritte Bonnema wanted to establish a Christian residence for homeless children. Today Bethany Christian Services has 81 offices in 31 states and has international presence in 17 countries. Their services include abstinence education, adoption, foster care, pregnancy counseling, home studies and post adoption services. With that they cover the whole spectrum of child placement services. In that sense, Bethany Christian Services is the Walmart of adoption agencies, the one-stop shop for all Christian child placement services.

For pregnant women seeking help, this one-stop shop is in many ways also a one-way ticket towards adoption, that eventually leads to the relinquishment of a child and to the permanent placement of that newborn with a Bethany approved Christian family.

When facing pregnancy there are in principle three options: parenting, having an abortion, relinquishing the child for adoption. Of these three options, Bethany Christian Services and its supplying network of pregnancy counseling centers, abortion is simply not an option, and parenting is often strongly discouraged. Through the tactics of moralistic and financial pressure, women are effectively coerced into choosing adoption, thereby artificially creating "orphans" for Christian couples to adopt.

The creation of "orphans" and the constant inflation of the meaning of the word "orphan" to enlarge the pool of adoptable children, is part and parcel of the Christian adoption wave that has been rolling over the United States in the last decade. Bethany Christian Service is at the epicenter of this orphan crusade movement. It is the most prominent member of the National Council for Adoption (NCFA) and despite it's deceptive name, nothing more than a membership organization of Christian adoption agencies, with an influential voice in Washington DC.

Bethany Christian Services is also a prominent member of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, a coalition of Christian adoption agencies, foster care agencies, orphan care organizations and churches, supported by Campus Crusade for Christ and Focus on the Family. The Christian Alliance for Orphans and its programs Hope for orphans, Faces of the Forgotten, Cry of the Orphan and Orphan Sundays, aggressively market adoption through churches. Bethany Christian Services plays a major role in this movement, sponsoring training sessions to further spread the adoption gospel, motivating Christians to not only adopt children, but to adopt as many children as possible.

To generate the number of adoptable children for this market expansion, the term "orphan" has undergone serious inflation over the years. Its original meaning related to children whose parents had both died. Under the influence of Christian adoption, the word now relates to every child that either doesn't live permanently with its family, or has lost at least one parent. This definition creates the illusion there are hundreds of millions of children screaming to be adopted, helping adoption agencies to expand their client base. In reality, the demand for adoptable children has for more than a century exceeded the supply of adoptable children. Therefore, the inflation of the term "orphan" has two effects, it generates more demand in an already overheated market and it puts pressure on policy makers to make adoption practices even more lenient than they already are, enlarging the pool of adoptable children.

Through its close ties to organizations like CCAI, NCFA, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, Joint Council on International Children’s Services, Bethany Christian Services is in a position to influence political decisions that directly benefit their business. They have already received millions of dollars in grants from the federal government over the past decade. This grant money has gone toward operational purposes as well as embryo adoptions and abstinence-only education (a tool to create more unplanned pregnancies). Bethany Christian Services stands even more to win when congress puts the Families for Orphans Act into law. The current bill reads like a pipe dream for all adoption agencies and has strong support of Bethany Christian Services, who indirectly contributed to the draft of the bill, introduced by CCAI chair Mary Landrieu.

This brings us back to the incestuous relationship between US congress and the adoption industry of which Bethany Christian Services is the most prominent party. It is not uncommon for an industry to write bills for members of congress to introduce. It is not uncommon for former politicians to be involved in lobbying for particular industries, but it unheard of that an industry writes its own bills, has an organization of active members of congress lobby for it and receives awards from those very members of congress mainly for running a business.

To raise a voice against adoption propaganda and the self congratulatory practices of CCAI's annual Angels in Adoption Awards^TM, Pound Pup Legacy initiated the Annual Demons of Adoption in 2007. This year there were many "worthy" nominees, but members and visitors of PPL's website decided Bethany Christian Services to be most deserving to receive the award. Bethany Christian Services has over the years used coercive tactics on pregnant women to obtain infants for adoption and has used its influence, both in the US and abroad to create "orphans" to further expand their business.

Hopefully this year's award will help raise awareness about the predatory practices of the adoption industry and the incestuous relationship between the industry and lawmakers that have the task to regulate that industry. One day it may no longer be necessary to call out agencies on their practices. One day the Demons of Adoption awards may no longer have to be presented anymore, but until that day, PPL will keep a close watch on the adoption industry and annually put one of its members in a spotlight they would rather avoid.

Bethany Christian Services is hereby Demon of Adoption 2009 and is given the exclusive right to carry the banner of this year's edition on their website.

In 2007 we instituted the annual Demons of Adoption Award to raise a voice against adoption propaganda and the self congratulatory practices of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's annual Angels in Adoption Awards ^TM.

Sunday, November 9, the winner of the second Annual Demons of Adoption Awards was announced. Out of a list of 10 nominees the members and visitors of Pound Pup Legacy have chosen the makers of Juno to be the winner.

The annual Demons of Adoptions was created to to raise a voice against adoption propaganda and the self congratulatory practices of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's annual Angels in Adoption Awards^TM. Last year the National Council for Adoption had the "honor" of winning that awards for "pushing the adoption agenda in pregnancy consultation". This year Juno joined the illustrious ranks for "helping to groom and brainwash a whole new generation of girls and young women to be walking incubators for the the adoption industry".

Winning the award, the makers of Juno will have the unique right to show the Demons of Adoption 2008 banner on their website.

We would like to thank all our members and visitors for voting. The results of the poll can be found here.

Last October we instituted our annual Demons of Adoption Award to raise a voice against adoption propaganda and the self congratulatory practices of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's annual Angels in Adoption Awards^TM.

Even though last year's edition was very much a spur of the moment action, it was a success and many people visited to vote.