It will be months, if not years, before the country sees the lasting impact of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which protected women’s decisions to terminate a pregnancy. 

With abortion now illegal in nearly 10 states and under tighter restrictions in about a dozen other states, anti-abortion activists and some lawmakers have pushed adoption as an alternative to abortion.

In Alabama, where abortion is illegal except in the case of a medical emergency, one private adoption agency is concerned that the foster care and adoption system may not be ready to handle a potential influx of children entering the system.  

“They are certainly not prepared for what I feel like is going to be an explosion of babies being born,” said Susan Wyatt of Family Adoption Services in Alabama. “A family that has a couple of children and has to put them in daycare so that the parent can work, I just don’t know how women are going to be able to afford it. … I would love to see every baby carried to term and either parented or filling the empty arms of these families that we have, but I don’t know if the system is prepared.”

Adoptions over the years

A report from the National Council For Adoption shows that, overall, adoptions have declined drastically from 2019-20 in the U.S., though the report did not decipher if the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had an influence. 

In Alabama, the total number of domestic adoptions was 1,778 in 2019 with adoptions through private agencies or sources making up 59%. Fifty-three percent of the more than 1,700 domestic adoptions in 2020 were through private adoptions, and public adoptions (or adoptions of children in state custody) comprised 47% of the total number of domestic adoptions, according to NCFA. 

Similarly in Georgia, private adoptions made up 49% of the more than 3,200 domestic adoptions in 2019 and public (state) adoptions made up 51%. The total number of domestic adoptions declined to 2,852 in 2020 with private adoptions comprising 44% of those adoptions. 

Wyatt and her attorney husband, Rick, started their independent adoption agency 30 years ago after having adopted two children because she couldn’t medically have children.

The waiting list for adoptive families has gotten shorter during the last couple of years, Wyatt said, and her agency has since downsized.  

“It’s just difficult to have 15 waiting couples and to keep them, and be their cheerleader for two years — and that’s what the wait used to look like,” she said. “We have many fewer couples that are waiting right now. I may be working with nine different (birth mothers). All of them may place, some of them may place or none of them may place. So what goes on behind the scenes of an adoption agency is much more involved than people have any idea.”

Alabama Department of Human Resources reports a decrease in children in foster care, with nearly 6,400 children in 2018, and decreasing each year to approximately 5,960 in 2021. DHR also reports seeing a record number of adoptions through the state in recent years.

In 2020, Alabama DHR finalized a record 814 adoptions and saw its second most on record in 2021, when they finalized 783 adoptions.  

“We have fewer children coming into care,” said Karen Smith, deputy commissioner for Alabama’s Children and Family Services. “With the children that are exiting care, the majority of them are returning to their parents or relatives and we’re continuing to do a record number of adoptions if we come to that point in our cases.”

Costly process of adoption 

The cost of adoptions is often a deterrent for many families looking to add to their family, with costs reaching as much as $45,000 through private adoption agencies.

At Family Adoption Services, a $30,000 fee is due at time of placement, Wyatt said. That typically covers the agency working for sometimes up to two years for the family, insurance, administrative expenses, legal fees, operational costs and medical expenses of the birth mothers. 

She recalled back to when she first adopted: The birth mother of one of her children had changed her mind about placing her child with the Wyatts and decided to take her baby home.

After three weeks, the birth mother called and indicated that the help and support she thought she would have was not available. Wyatt recalled the 17-year-old birth mother stating she didn’t have diapers, wipes or formula and hadn’t taken the baby to the doctor since birth.  

“That’s what I’m seeing is about to happen (due to abortion laws),” she said. “Are these women who are forced to carry these babies to term going to get them home and go, ‘Whoa, I can’t do this.’”

Sometimes adoption agencies incur more expenses, such as housing expectant mothers who have no place to live.  

“What are we going to do with these women who are now not able to terminate their pregnancy?” Wyatt asked. “How are adoption agencies going to afford for families to afford that additional cost to house and care for a woman who wants to place her child for adoption?” 

She added, “We have someone right now in a motel, a mother who is due in October, and we’re having to pay for her to stay there, and her food. She has found a job — walking to a fast-food restaurant. She’s willing to do that but a lot of them won’t or can’t work. And so that’s the other thing that we’re going to have to start looking at is, do we have families who can afford to pay that money for the upkeep or the care of a mother who hopefully would go through the adoption?”

What to expect when adopting?

Adoption requirements vary by state. But generally, steps toward adoption include extensive paperwork, background checks, a home study and inspection, reference checks, court hearings and a variation of classes such as parenting and CPR training.

Families can often choose their preferred race of the child and circumstances surrounding the child’s birth to include whether they’re amenable to birth defects, a child whose mother used drugs, etc. 

Following the birth of a child entering into adoptive care, the birth mother has four days to revoke her consent to terminate her parental rights in Georgia. In Alabama, the birth mother has five days to revoke consent. 

“We’re protecting the mom so that she doesn’t feel pressured that this baby’s going to go from the hospital to a family and feels ‘I’ve made a terrible mistake and I want the baby back,’” Wyatt said. “She knows that the child won’t go until the five days are up. And it also protects our families. They’ve also been through a lot. … They may have had failed infertility procedures, or they may have had multiple miscarriages or, like Rick and I, were told that we would never have children.”

She said expectant mothers call at all points during pregnancy, from six weeks of pregnancy to eight months. Sometimes a mother will make the decision toward adoption after giving birth at the hospital.  

“Two weeks ago, we got a call from the hospital and the mother had already had the baby. We were down at the beach, coming back to Birmingham, a five-hour drive. We had to get all the paperwork ready and get to the hospital before she discharged that night,” Wyatt said. “That happens occasionally where a woman just goes into the hospital and calls us off of her phone and says, ‘This is what I want to do,’ and we’ve placed lots of babies that way.”

Most children entering adoption through private agencies are newborns or infants, but older children are occasionally available through private agencies. Those cases, however, are typically referred to the state.

“That would be something more foster care would take care of,” Wyatt said. “But we have had families that have called and said, ‘If you ever get an older child (meaning older than a newborn), there are families that are waiting.’ And then that would be another criteria to show that family’s profile to a (birth) mother if she came to us with an older child.”

A contract or agreement is typically reached to address communication preferences between the birth mother and the adoptive family.

“Each adoption is different. We have some families that are very open and they tell you from the beginning that they want an open adoption and if the mother is open to that,” she said. “Some mothers want visitation and we have to be real careful about that and and walk them through that.” 

Smith said the process of adopting through the state, as with private adoptions, could also be a lengthy process, particularly going the foster-to-adopt path. The child’s reunification with a parent is often the goal at the state-level, and relative adoptions for the child are often the secondary goal.

“To get to the point where there’s a termination of parental rights, and if it’s appealed during the appellate court, all of that takes a length of time, unless there’s something along the lines of some type of extenuating circumstances,” Smith explained. “It takes time for us to do an adoption. Once the termination of parental rights has occurred, our goal is to have that adoption done within about 90 days.”

According to an email from Georgia Department of Human Services, there were 10,796 children in foster care as of Aug. 8. At any given time, there are approximately 300 children awaiting adoption without an identified adoptive family.  

There are more than 5,700 children currently in foster care in Alabama. More than 160 children are currently on a plan of foster-to-adopt and approximately 240 are in permanent state custody with no adoptive resources identified, Smith said. 

“If these (Alabama) children don’t have an adoptive resource, then that’s when they’re placed on the (Heart Gallery Alabama) website and AdoptUsKids. And so those children it may take longer, and some of them may not ever get adopted because we don’t have a resource for them,” Smith said. 

Part II 

Foster-to-adopt less costly but comes with unknowns

Foster parenting is a more temporary solution for parents not looking for long-term parenting; parental rights to the child are often not terminated since the goal is to usually reunite the child with a parent or family member.

Mary and her husband, Jeremy, adopted three siblings through Georgia Division of Family & Children Services and have a 10-year-old biological son. The couple asked that their last names not be used to shield the identity of their children.

When they learned she couldn’t have any more children, they looked into adoption initially, but eventually made their way into becoming foster parents. 

“That seemed to just kind of fit best for what we were trying to do and there was a need and we were able, time wise, to do fostering. So, at that point, when we started doing fostering, we weren’t doing it with the plan to adopt,” Mary said. 

A year into being foster parents to 3-month-old twins, Mary and her husband were informed by their caseworker that the twins’ mother wasn’t doing well on her case plan. The caseworker said there would be a plan that included potential termination of the mother’s parental rights, if the reunification route was not successful.   

“So we talked about it, and (the twins) had been with us for a year then, and so it just felt right,” Mary said.

Once it was decided to terminate the birth mother’s rights, Mary described the lengthy process toward adoption. Much of it stemmed from a relative of the twins having interest in adopting them. Also, during the process the twins’ mother became pregnant again.  

“We knew that their mom had gotten pregnant again and that the child was going to come into care, so then we ended up with three, but this was not the plan,” Mary said. 

Child placement organizations agree that some groups of children are harder to place since foster and adoptive parents typically have preferences on characteristics of the child they are will willing to bring into their home. In general, sibling groups, children with special needs and older youth are more difficult to place.

“I know we just placed, last year, a sibling group of six, so it can be done — it just takes a lot of effort on our part and it takes someone willing to open their home and their heart for a specific child or large sibling group or something along those lines,” Smith said. “The babies right out of the nursery are more easy to place. But, again, it can be done.”

Georgia DHS added in an emailed statement that teens make up the largest number of harder to place children still waiting for families.

“It can also be difficult to find foster and adoptive homes for large sibling groups and youth with complex needs,” Georgia DHS stated.

The downside to adoption through the state or foster care, aside from a private agency, is the “unknown” of the outcomes, Mary said. 

“Sometimes you’re kind of mentally preparing that this child is going to go back with their mom, like that’s what the goal is, and then sometimes that goal can switch between days,” she explained. “We had one time that the kids were placed back with their mom, and then came back to us the next day because it wasn’t working out. So just that back-and-forth and not knowing exactly what the plan and the direction is going to be was really hard.”

Fostering-to-adopt, Mary said, can also take an emotional toll on families waiting to permanently grow their family, she said.  

“Because your kids and your family, like your parents, we all get attached to these kids too — which is a good and healthy thing,” she said. “But when those kids had to leave, it was hard. I sat there and cried with my oldest son when they were going to leave. And he was so sad that they were going to leave and we talked a lot about just because it’s a hard thing doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing.”

Smith agreed with the notion of fostering-to-adopt being a more difficult path for permanency.

“What I’ve found over my years working with DHR is that people typically foster-to-adopt for two reasons: Either as a mission and a service to others or to grow their family, she said. “And so those that are in it to grow their family might have a difficult time with the reunification process or us looking for (birth) family members may be more difficult to for them at times, versus the others who are wanting to do this as a mission or as a service.”

Though the foster-to-adopt option is less predictable, it saves families looking to adopt much more money. Mary and her husband avoided out-of-pocket expenses toward the adoption.

“Because (the state has already) gone to court, we’re the ones that carry the burden to prove that the child is dependent and to prove that termination of parental rights is in the child’s best interest,” Smith explained. “So we carry that burden of proof and the cost to get it to that stage.”

In addition, families adopting children considered “specials needs” often see no out-of-pocket expenses due to incentives offered by the state. Most special needs adoptions also receive monthly adoption subsidies and medical coverage through Medicaid.  

In Georgia, a special needs adoption involves a child who has been in foster care or adoption for more than two years; a child with a physical, mental or emotional disability; or a child who is a member of a sibling group of two or more placed in the same home for adoption.

For Alabama, a special needs adoption is considered any child 5 or older; children with a background of parental substance abuse, mental illnessn that places them at risk; children with various degrees of mental, physical or emotional problems; and a sibling group of two or more placed at the same time with the same family.

While financial and in-kind support is available in some adoptions, Mary encourages people looking to become foster parents or to adopt to know themselves and be willing to ask for support. 

“We have church and friends and lots and lots of people that have walked through this with us,” she said. “Just be willing to accept help because a lot of times in fostering and adopting it’s easy to think because it was your choice to take it on that the burden should lay solely with you instead of allowing other people to help you.”

States push to recruit foster, adoptive parents

Last year, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp — who signed a law in 2019 essentially banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected — signed several laws aimed to reform adoption and foster care in Georgia.   

Among them was a bill to increase the tax credit for families who adopt a child from foster care from $2,000 to $6,000 per year for five years, and another bill lowered the age required to adopt from age 25 to 21.

“The most fundamental need for any child is a safe, loving home,” Kemp said. “By making it more affordable to adopt, reducing bureaucratic red tape that stands in the way of loved ones adopting kids, and championing the safety of children across our state, we can ensure Georgia’s children are placed in those homes and secure a safer, brighter future for generations to come.”

Earlier this month, Kemp announced a statewide marketing campaign to help recruit and retain more foster parents for youth in state custody.

Information on foster care and adoption in Georgia can be found on the Division of Family & Children Services website at dfcs.georgia.gov/services/adoption.

This year, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed S31, which guarantees employees 12 weeks of unpaid family leave during the first year of caring for an adopted child. In 2020, she signed a bill that allows a judge to consider a foster parent’s involvement in a prospective adoptive child’s life in the event that a relative of the child comes forward in the 11th hour on an adoption process.  

For information on the adoption requirements in Alabama, visit dhr.alabama.gov/adoption/adoption-checklist/.