U.S. Government Funding for Family Separations and Adoption
Did you know...?
* Federal tax dollars are being used to encourage more infant surrenders for adoption.
The National Council for Adoption (NCFA) has received federal funds for its Infant Adoption Training Initiative, which trains staff at state agencies, doctor's offices, pregnancy counselors, rape crisis and domestic violence centers, and other organizations where pregnant women may go on how to provide "adoption information and referrals to pregnancy clients". The Guttmacher Institute researched the results of the training and found that it was often out of compliance with federal law because it directed pregnant women toward surrendering their children for adoption.
"NCFA is an umbrella organization for adoption agencies that are mostly Christian and Mormon--many of which have certain moral, religious, and philosophical views that do not comport with the notion of presenting women facing an unintentended pregnancy with all of their options in a neutral, unbiased way." --Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, in an interview for The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, "Out of Compliance? Implementing the Infant Adoption Awareness Act", August 2004.
* Federal law provides extraordinarily generous tax credits for adoption.
The 2010 federal health care reform legislation extended and increaesd the tax credit to $13,170 for 2010 and 2011 and made the credit refundable (About.com, "Adoption Tax Credit"). The Tax Relief Act extended the credit for at least $12,170 in 2012. The credit is scheduled to revert back to $5,000, or $6,000 for children with special needs, beginning in 2013.
Data show that the tax credit disproportionately supports higher-income families who adopt internationally or privately and who primarily adopt very young children. In 2004, less than a quarter of taxpayers claiming the credit adopted children from the U.S. foster care system (Joe Kroll, Executive Director, North American Council on Adoptable Children, "The Adoption Tax Credit: An Ethical Dilemma", from Fall 2007 Adoptalk).
* I4 states donate a portion of proceeds from "Choose Life" license plates to adoption/maternity services providers.
"Many of the states with "Choose Life" license plates explicitly prohibit organizations that offer a full range of services, including abortion counseling or referral, from receiving the funds. Reproductive health activists have challenged some of these policies, arguing that it is unconstitutional for a state to endorse one political viewpoint over another, and that the funding of agencies affiliated with churches or religious organizations amounts to establishment of religion." (Guttmacher Institute, 'Choose Life' License Plates," As of June 1, 2011.)
