For the people who don't believe that coercion exists today?

Birthers are NOT mothers

If this so called coercion does exist...how dumb does the woman have to be to not know what is happening to her? If she wanted her baby she would lay down her life for it plain and simple. If she didn't and she let the baby be taken then she didn't fight enough to keep it. Abandoners will go to great lengths to blame all those around them so THEY can live with themselves for feeding their children to the wolves.

jimbell

I am not a parent, and I have not had personal experience with adoption, but I saw this question on the main page, and I had to answer.
Coercion definitely exists today. My neighbor "volunteers" at one of the so called "crisis pregnancy centers". She practically brainwashes all the girls that they are completely unfit to be parents, and that the only option is to put up the child for adoption.

I am not saying that all CPCs are like that. I actually know of few centers that actually provide options and help the girls continue their education while parenting their child. The nurturing network used to be one of them,and they probably still are.
However, many of the centers are "baby shops" in disguise who prey on vulnerable girls, try their best to convince them that they are s-uts because they're not married, and keep telling them over and over that children can only do well in a two-parent traditional household, then offer help if the girl wants to give up her child.It may not be outright coercion, but it comes pretty close to it.

kitta

Pre-birth relinquishments exist in several other states.

Washington state, Colorado, Florida, and Kansas all have a form of it. Pre-birth surrender papers can be signed before birth, in these states.Legal procedures exist for either rescinding the surrender, or for requiring that it be signed again before a judge or some other method of re-affirmation.
In Washington state , for example, the mother has 48 hours after the birth to rescind the surrender.This is not much time.

As far as I know, a surrender cannot be finalized until after the child is born. This is due to the fact that the child is not considered to be a "legal person" until it is born.

Probably other states have pre-birth surrenders, too.In quite a number of states, fathers can sign pre-birth surrenders.The industry knows that the earlier the parents are nailed down, the harder it is for them to extricate themselves from adoption arrangements.

I consider pre-birth surrenders to be coercive by their very nature. Simply by signing such a paper, the mother has already placed herself and her child in harm's way, probably without realizing it.

What happens if she leaves the hospital with the baby,without rescinding the surrender? The surrender is finalized automatically in 2 days(Washington) and she is home with her baby.Will the sheriff come to her home and take her baby from her?

Independ"ant"

I know it exists why else would there be so many adoption agencies being shut down and/or investigated for crimes against humanity today.

Sadly in almost all of the articles...you only hear Paps complaining when they lose money and end up empty handed.

I Love A Child With Autism!!!

I thoroughly believe that coercion is still alive and well in adoptions today. I do not remember reading any answers that said they believed NO coercion exists today, but I have seen quite a few people say that they feel that coercion is not as prevalent in today's times as it was in previous era's, such as the BSE. I think there is a big different between those two points.

I tend to agree that more women are relinquishing on their own free accord today than say in the 60's and 70's but that doesn't mean for every woman who freely chooses an adoption plan that there aren't 5 other women who are having the fact that they are unmarried and cannot financially afford a child being drilled into their head at every turn. Coersion is different now, women aren't necessarily strong armed into it, but that doesn't mean that tactics which are equally as effective are still in use today.

That being said, I also have to mention that I also do not agree with those few people who try to stuff down everyone's throats that EVERY child EVER adopted was all but kidnapped. I do believe that there are women who relinquish on their own valition for a number of reasons. I tend to stand in the middle of the two extremes and realize that extreme criminal coersion does exist, but so do women who make an adoption plan based solely on their free will.

yeahright

What I've said in the past on this board is today's women have more options and have many many more vehicles to become educated to be able to oppose or refute that coercion. And yes, I believe that the coercion of the BSE has lessened and woman are far more educated and there are far more programs in support of single women. When coercion occurs (and it would be silly to deny coercion doesn't occur from people) there are options for mothers to educate themselves to refute any lies or pressure they are told by outside forces (boyfriend, parents, agencies, social services--etc).

If a judge upholds parental rights than no I don't think any mother is a con artist. In fact, if a mom changes her mind at any given time, I applaud them--they should keep there children.

What I find distasteful and wrong is that agencies call the counseling the give counseling at all--it isn't. There is not (to my knowledge--please correct me if I am wrong) pre-birth termination of parental rights in private adoption that is legally binding. If there is, that would be wrong too.

The stigma associated with being a single parent isn't there like it was. Grandparent's can't sign like they used to be able to.

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