Who Adopts?

Who Adopts?

2,000,000 women between the ages of 14 and 44 who

were surveyed in 1988, had ever sought to adopt a child.

Of these,

1.3-million did not adopt,

620,000 had adopted one or more children;

204,000 were currently seeking.

-CASAnet Resource Library online; "Foster Care and Adoption Statistics

Summary," CRS Report for Congress; 1-15-97; Child

Welfare League of America

232,000 married women had taken steps toward adopting in 1995;

-National Center for Health Statistics, 1999

11-25% of couples with infertility problems had taken steps toward adopting in 1996;

12-25% of adoptions, depending on state law, are by single persons..

[Note: This figure would include single lesbian and gay

adopters with partners.]

-Shireman, 1995

2,000,000 couples competed for 58,000 children placed for adoption in 1984

- a ratio of 35:1.

-"Adoption--It's Not Impossible," Andrew B. Wilson,

Business Week, 7-8-85, p. 112

20% of adopters (as compared to 20% of mothers) felt anxious, and

10% of each group felt depressed in their first 6 weeks of motherhood,

fatigue being more prevalent among mothers.

-"Family Medicine", a study of 200 new mothers, 1-91

1,500,000 (estimated) American children are being raised

by their grandparents, up 1,000,000 from 1990;

About 400 support groups offer advice to grandparents

raising their children's children.

-Capper's, 9-23-97, p.11

(Note: Grandparents often adopt the grandchildren they

are raising for legal protections; no figures are available but

there have been many resulting lawsuits by parents seeking to

block such adoptions or to regain custody of their children

from their parents; in past times, many grandparents raised

"illegitimate" grandchildren as if they were siblings of their

own children.)