In 1992, China began allowing people from other countries to adopt babies from China. About 82,000, mostly girls, have been adopted in the United States. However, China has now stopped allowing foreign adoptions.
Families who are already in the middle of the lengthy process of adoption will not be able to continue. Chinese authorities have announced that no additional processing of cases “at any stage” will be allowed. Hundreds of hopeful adoptive families will lose the children they were already matched with.
Exceptions will be made for stepparent adoptions and kinship adoptions. Without these factors, international adoptions from China will no longer be legal.
Why has China ended its adoption program?
China used to have a “one-child policy” which strictly penalized families with more than one child. The cultural preference for boys caused families to abandon female children in order to try again for a son. This policy has been lifted, and China has begun to worry about its low birthrate. Like many other countries with declining birthrates, China faces an aging population with too few young people to support the elderly. The birthrate in China has fallen to 6.39 per thousand people, and the overall population of China has decreased by nearly 3 million.
There has also been increasing resentment and tension between the U.S. and Chinese governments, and some experts suggest that this has influenced the decision to forbid foreign adoptions. While China has forbidden all foreign adoptions, American parents have been by far the most common adoptive parents for Chinese children over the past three decades.
Options for parents who want to adopt
For several decades, there has been a perception that adopting from China is easier than adopting an American child. The adoption process can certainly be long and complex, but with the right support, it can also be a joyful experience. We have worked with many adoptive families and birth mothers to grow wonderful families without the uncertainty and complexity of international adoption.
If you had hoped to adopt from China, call Heimer Law to learn more about the domestic adoption process. We will be happy to answer all your questions with a free consultation.
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