The complexity of adoption is again in the news – although the process is being presented as a simple exercise that only takes a lot of time because of “politically correct” (and therefore incompetent) social workers.
Figures are thrown around without explanations of the context. For instance, “3600 children under the age of one were in care last year” a with no explanation of the proportion of those babies who were actually available for adoption – in contrast to those in temporary care arrangements, whose parent(s) may not have released them for adoption, who may have complex disabilities requiring particular family circumstances, or who may be part of family groups including older children. One press report compared the number of adoptions in 2010 with the numbers from the years before the full impact of changes in the abortion legislation reduced the number of babies who were given up at birth. b
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