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Summary
Summary
"Dares to imagine a different world where Americans treat adoption like the justice issue it is." âe* Washington Post
"Impressively reported...[Sisson] uses her deep well of knowledge to make the case that adoption is no solution for Americans' reduced access to abortion." âe* San Francisco Chronicle
A powerful decade-long study of adoption in the age of Roe, revealing the grief of the American mothers for whom the choice to parent was never real
Adoption has always been viewed as a beloved institution for building families, as well as a mutually agreeable common ground in the abortion debate, but little attention has been paid to the lives of mothers who relinquish infants for private adoption. Relinquished reveals adoption to be a path of constrained choice for those for whom abortion is inaccessible, or for whom parenthood is untenable. The stories of relinquishing mothers are stories about our country's refusal to care for families at the most basic level, and to instead embrace an individual, private solution to a large-scale, social problem.
With the recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization revoking abortion protections, we are in a political moment in which adoption is, increasingly, being revealed as an institution devoted to separating families and policing parenthood under the guise of feel-good family-building. Rooted in a long-term study, Relinquished features the in-depth testimonies of American mothers who placed their children for domestic adoption. The voices of these women are powerful and heartrending; they deserve to be heard.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sociologist Sisson's comprehensive and harrowing debut draws on a decade of interviews and archival research to argue that America's current discourse around adoption belies its insidious history of targeting vulnerable mothers and children. As Sisson points out, adoption remains one of the few bipartisan areas of political agreement: the left supports it as a means of building chosen families, while the right views it as a means of maintaining the nuclear family and curtailing abortion rates. Yet the reality, Sisson argues, is that the adoption industry has historically been predicated on state-sanctioned family separation. She traces America's long history of child removal, including the sale of children born into slavery, the forced assimilation of Native American children, and the conscription as farm laborers of children born to poor white mothers in the 19th century. She pinpoints the emergence of the modern adoption industry in the post-WWII "baby scoop" era, when unmarried women were coerced into relinquishing their children, and shows that today's private adoption industry continues in the tradition of separating disadvantaged families. Throughout, Sisson foregrounds the stories of mothers who gave up their children for adoption, juxtaposing their personal monologues with sociological and historical research that highlights broader patterns in their testimonies. The result is a devastating and urgent condemnation of America's adoption industry. (Feb.)
Booklist Review
Sisson, a PhD scholar of U.S. abortion and adoption, spent a decade interviewing hundreds of American mothers who relinquished their children to private domestic adoption. Adoption appeals to the political right and left, but prioritizes the ideals of adoptive families, writes Sisson, "If we wish to understand what adoption means today, we must listen to relinquishing mothers now." Among research-based chapters are first-person narratives from birth mothers, some of whom spoke to Sisson in 2010 and again in 2020. These fascinating and often heartrending accounts are both varied and echoing, resoundingly so. Relinquishing mothers come to their decision from both a dearth of options and an abundance of love--with some subjects, out of their trauma, offering well-reasoned improvements to the system. This isn't an all-sides view and doesn't claim to be, as Sisson includes the work of adoption abolition groups and doesn't propose alternatives to adoption as it exists for people trying to build much-desired families. Rather, it is a crucial piece in understanding reproductive justice and the unequal ways we create and care for families in this country.
Library Journal Review
Every year, nearly 20,000 women place their children for adoption. Sociologist Sisson (Univ. of California, San Francisco), whose research was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court's dissent in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, seeks to share a new perspective on this subject. Adoption is embraced by both sides of the political aisle, but Sisson believes that TV shows such as 16 and Pregnant feature narratives about pregnancy and adoption that don't mesh with reality or the true experiences of parents. Utilizing more than 100 interviews with birth mothers of various professions, religions, and socioeconomic statuses, the book, academic in tone, explores how they made the challenging decision to place their child for adoption and what consequences this had on their lives. The adoptions mentioned in this book took place between the years 2000 and 2020 in all regions of the U.S. Sisson also looks back at times in history when people--enslaved, Indigenous peoples, and others who were oppressed--were forced to have babies, who were then sold or yanked away. Birth fathers are not included in Sisson's survey; the author opted to have a conversation about adoption with a single focus. VERDICT Provocative, in-depth, and scholarly. For readers interested in the history of adoption.--Julia M. Reffner
Table of Contents
| Author's Note | ix |
| Introduction | 1 |
| 1 The Domestic Suppliers of Infants | 13 |
| Cassie | 45 |
| Jordan | 53 |
| 2 Choosing Life | 58 |
| Camille | 88 |
| Stephanie | 93 |
| 3 The Family My Heartbreak Made Possible | 104 |
| Sarah | 143 |
| Erica | 149 |
| 4 Tea Years Later | 159 |
| Paige | 184 |
| 5 Mothers, Martyrs, Myths | 193 |
| Christina | 219 |
| Kate | 224 |
| 6 To Parent the Children We Have | 235 |
| Appendix A Study Methodology | 265 |
| Appendix B A Note on Adoption Language | 268 |
| Acknowledgments | 272 |
| Notes | 275 |
| Index | 299 |