December 31, 2012

Russian Adoption Ban

The adoption world has looked on in horror the past few days as news of Russians ending US adoptions came true when President Putin signed a law banning the adoption of Russian children by US families. Many American families are now left in limbo, unable to complete the adoptions they had started with Russian children – children they had met, fallen in love with and promised a home. Although most US adoptions are domestic, Russian adoptions are the third highest in foreign adoptions in the US, second to China and Ethiopia. Many are seeing this as a response to political disagreements between Russia and the US, although the Russian government is citing the deaths of 19 children adopted by US parents, and the situation of the Russian boy who was adopted and then sent back to Russia unattended, as reasons for the ban. Although there’s no doubt that adoption relations between Russia and the US have been strained since then, to punish so many innocent children – many of whom suffering from diseases and disabilities including HIV and Spina Bifida – is heartless, senseless and cruel. Lawmakers are outraged and some are trying to reverse the ban, especially for disabled children. In the meantime, we need to rally for peace and justice, and to support those of our own community whose families and adoption plans have been devastated by this law.