Why adoption plays such a big, contentious role in US-Russia relations
(During the pre-Roeera of widespread maternity homes, nearly 20 percent of unmarried white women who became pregnant relinquished their children for adoption. There have long been fewer relinquishments among unwed mothers of color, who, during those years, had the mixed blessing of being less likely to be pressured into adoption but more likely to face other forms of reproductive control and abuse.)
.. Americans who pursue foreign adoptions also sometimes want to avoid “open” adoption, in which birth parents retain some contact with their children — which now typically happens to some degree in 95 percent of US domestic adoptions.
.. Amid this complex landscape, starting in the 1990s, Russia rose into the ranks of the top-sending countries, with more than 4,000 Russian children adopted by US families each year between 1998 and 2005. (Russia’s role as a source of “white babies” is real but likely overemphasized, as there is high demand for foreign babies of all ethnicities, even as black and brown babies in the US sometimes go unadopted — with some even adopted by foreigners.)
.. In 2010, a Tennessee woman put her adopted son, born in Russia, on a solo flight back, with a note explaining that he was violent and mentally ill and that “for the safety of my family, friends and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child.” Criminal charges weren’t filed against the adoptive mother, but she was ordered to pay child support.