What Does Adoption Look Like In A Post Roe Vs Wade World

If you are trying to adopt or even self-match your adoption, you may be curious what the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade will mean for your adoption journey.  

Before we dive in today, let me get a couple of important disclaimers out of the way. I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice, nor will I get into the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate.  We do not know if there will be an increase in children being placed for adoption, and I do not suggest you take any sort of predatory behavior to convince someone to place their child with you. 

I am simply sharing my perspective on what this means for hopeful adoptive parents and giving you some resources to consult as you navigate this new world. 

I have received hundreds of direct messages asking about the Roe vs. Wade being overturned means for hopeful adoptive families. If you are self-matching, you must be educated on how the law impacts you. We will discuss that in the My Coach Adoption Facebook group. Join us here.

There is one other thing we need to consider before diving into the impact of the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade on adoption rates: the total number of abortions that happen in a year. We all know it is impossible to guess what the increase in adoptions will be, but we can understand the entire landscape better. 

Historical Abortion Rates By State

As you can imagine, it is difficult to get an exact number of abortions by the state as there are different resources.  I consulted the Pew Research Center for my education, but they consulted the Center for Disease Control and Guttmacher Institute, which have different results.  They are also a few years behind reporting their numbers to complicate matters further. The article that I found quotes numbers from 2019.  

“The last year for which the CDC reported a yearly national total for abortions is 2019. The agency says there were 629,898 abortions nationally that year, slightly up from 619,591 in 2018. Guttmacher’s latest figures are from 2020, when it says there were 930,160 abortions nationwide, up from 916,460 in 2019.” https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/24/what-the-data-says-about-abortion-in-the-u-s-2/

It is important to note that not all of these abortions would be illegal based on the new trigger laws and that women will still be able to travel to other states to have abortions.  This was seen in 1972, the year before Roe Vs. Wade made abortions protected federally when 41% of women that had abortions in the states where it was allowed were from other states. 

If you want to see the top 10 states’ abortion rates, this is a good source: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/slideshows/states-with-the-highest-abortion-rates?slide=11.  You will see there that the rates of abortion in top 10 states vary from roughly 8,000 to 80,000 between the states.

So now on to what has been the most commonly asked questions in my direct messages this week.

How Is Adoption Impacted In A Post Roe Vs. Wade World?

There are three things that we need to look at to determine the impact the overturning of Roe v Wade will have on adoption:

1. Understand what a trigger law is and what states have them

2. What states have trigger laws that allow self-matching adoptions

3. What states have trigger laws, allow for self-matching adoptions, AND allow paid adoption advertising

What is a trigger law, and what states have them?

According to the New York Times, there are trigger laws that will effectively ban abortion now that the Supreme Court struck down Roe V Wade, which means that these states proactively had legislation waiting to ban abortion or limit it once the supreme court struck down Roe V Wade.

Thirteen states are listed as having trigger laws in place now. Those states are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Each state has a different time in which it becomes illegal, and you can read more about that here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/us/abortion-trigger-laws.html

Check out this handy map, as it will give you a quick reference on all the different critical pieces of information by state. 

What States Have Trigger Laws and Allow Adoption Self-Matching

The next most commonly asked question is if there is any impact if you are self-matching your adoption, adopting with an adoption agency, adoption attorney, or adoption consultant.  The answer is the effect is the same in all 13 states with a trigger law. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/24/abortion-state-laws-criminalization-roe/

Self-matching your adoption means finding expectant parents without the help of an adoption agency or adoption consultant and typically only using an adoption attorney to finalize the legal side of your adoption.  If you are looking for more resources on how to self-match your adoption, you can check out this course that teaches you how www.myadoptioncoach.com/ultimateguide

For self-matching, it is important to know that nine states allow for self-matching and have trigger laws AR, LA, MO, MS, OK, SD, TN, TX, and WY. 

We are not implying that there will be more adoptions, but simply answer the questions and compare the state lists between the 13 trigger law states and those states that allow for adoption self-matching.

What States Have Trigger Laws and Allow Adoption Advertising?

So now that we understand what a trigger law, what states you can self-match in, you are likely wondering what states have trigger laws and allow adoption advertising.  Those states are AR, MO, MS, OK, TN, SD, and WY. If you want to learn more about adoption advertising, check out this post, https://www.myadoptioncoach.com/blog/paid-adoption-outreach. 

Again I share this information with you to arm you with the facts. If you want to discuss strategies to share your adoption profile more in these states, jump over to the my adoption coach Facebook group, where we focus on creating and sharing your adoption profile. Or, if you want to learn more about adoption advertising, check out the other resources available on this blog. 

Hi, I Am Amanda

I am an adoption profile expert on a mission to help you create and share your family's story more affordably!