**Depends on the parents that I know. Some did only want an infant or toddler - HOWEVER, if many of these infants being aborted were put up for adoption, those looking for only infants or toddlers wouldn’t have a problem finding them, would they? They wouldn’t HAVE to go out of the country to find infants/toddlers because there would be more in this country for them to adopt. **
Possibly true. Again, it would depend on the parents.
cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/ad/301-310/ad306.htm
"This report presents national data on adoption and adoption-related behaviors among ever-married women aged 18-44 in the United States, according to selected characteristics of the women. Trends are shown in the prevalence of adoption and relinquishment of children for adoption. For 1995, the report shows demand for adoption and women’s preferences for characteristics of the child. Data are based on nationally representative samples of women aged 15-44 from the 1973, 1982, 1988, and 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Data Highlights:
The prevalence of adoption increases with age, education, and income. Adoption by black women has remained relatively stable, but data suggest that adoption by white women has declined.
In 1995, 9.9 million women had ever considered adoption, representing over a quarter of all ever-married women in this age range. Of these women, 15.9 percent (1.6 million) had ever taken steps toward adoption.
In general, preferences are strong about the characteristics of an adopted child with regard to age of child, disability status of child, race of child, and number of children. Preferences are less strong for sex or religious affiliation of child.
Between 1989 and 1995, just under 1 percent of babies born to never-married women were relinquished for adoption. Never-married black women have been consistently less likely than never-married white women to relinquish their babies for adoption, and this likelihood has remained very low over the decades."
I’ve heard other stories (there were some on the news I think a few years ago) about parents who were denied adoptions of certain kids because the parents “weren’t of the right race” (I believe it was Caucasian parents trying to adopt African American children). So it isn’t necessarily just adoptive parents being choosy about race.
True, there are definitely policies and practices in place in variuos areas of the US that prevent some folks who would like to adopt domestically from doing so—age restrictions, racial restrictions, sexual orientation restrictions, marital status restrictions.
There are lots of people on multiple-year waiting lists just waiting to receive a child.
I am sure that is true. I was challenging the idea that every child who was not aborted would be easily and immediately adopted if another choice were made. If I were aware of a clamor prior to Roe v. Wade to adopt babies regardless of race or health status, I might be more convinced. That white, healthy infants are more easily adoptable, I have no problem believing, but those are not the only children who would be born from those seeking abortions.
I did find a study by the Guttmacher Institute on the effects of abortion access on adoption rates.
guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3402502.html
“Our results indicate that adoptions, particularly of children born to white women and by petitioners unrelated to the child, decreased in the 1960s and early 1970s when states repealed their laws restricting access to abortion. Roe v. Wade also may have lowered rates of adoption of children born to white women. Legal reforms allowing small increases in access to abortion, such as allowing the procedure for women who became pregnant as a result of rape or incest, did not affect adoption rates of children born to white women.”
However, my stories are certainly anecdotal at best - if anyone here wants to cite statistics (either of lots of babies up for adoption being put into the system and causing it to be over crowded or lack thereof) for either side, be my guest.
The Adoption History Project
darkwing.uoregon.edu/~adoption/topics/adoptionstatistics.htm has some information on the history of adoption in the US.