February 2021

February 25, 2021. Virtual Round Table Discusses New York's Compensated Surrogacy Law. The Coalition Against Trafficking for Women ("CATW") sponsored a virtual round table today on New York's new commercial surrogacy bill. CATW opposed the new surrogacy law and the presentation, which is available at the link below, featured speakers who also opposed the new law. The speakers included Jessica Allen, whose story we featured in this column. Jessica was a surrogate for Chinese intended parents. When one of the twins she delivered turned out to be her biological child, the intended parents abandoned the child to the agency which for months refused to give Allen back her child. More Information.

February 24, 2021. Sweden Announces Probes of Historic International Adoption. Swedish Health and Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren announced on Monday that "We are going to need to investigate how adoption practices functioned in Sweden between the 1960s and the 1990s. According to the Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, Swedes internationally adopted about 60,000 children from various countries around world, beginning in the 1950s. In 2000 Swedes adopted around 1,000 children; the number was less than 400 in 2019. More Information.

February 23, 2021. Netherlands Suspends International Adoption. The Netherlands announced earlier this month that it has decided to suspend all international adoptions. As the Dutch government explained, "They made this decision based on recommendations from the Committee Investigating Past Intercountry Adoption, which was tasked with investigating adoptions from abroad and possible illicit practices from 1967-1998. The Committee determined that during that period, the adoption infrastructure was not sufficient to prevent illicit practices and to safeguard the interests of adoptees." The Netherlands is one of the top destinations for outgoing adoptions from the United States. More Information.

February 22, 2021. Debate Over Foster Care Continues. Naomi Schaefer Riley, whose work we have mentioned in the past, has co-authored an article defending the structure of the current foster care system. Reacting to current calls to greatly change, if not abolish, the foster care system, Riley cities four "myths" about foster care: that most reports of child mistreatment result in children being placed in foster care; that most of what is called "neglect" is really poverty; that foster care makes a bad situation worse; and, that with enough money, we would not need foster care. Read the article.

February 18, 2021. Government of Cambodia Announcement on Intercountry Adoptions. The Cambodian government has informed the Department of State that Cambodia intends to reopen international adoption. The State Department cautions, however, that it has no further details on international adoption from Cambodia. Moreover, "At this time, intercountry adoptions from Cambodia to the United States are still not possible. The United States suspended processing adoptions from Cambodia in 2001, due to fraud and irregularities in the adoption process in Cambodia. The United States reconfirmed the suspension in 2013." More Information.