ABSTRACT: This essay introduces adoption, and this special issue, within a feminist human rights framework. Feminists should be concerned with human rights abuses and unethical practices inherent in adoption systems that exploit the fertility of girls and women due to economic and social vulnerabilities such as location, age, race, and culture. These practices continue to result in reproductive violence and lifelong trauma to natal mothers. And, although the impact of such practices on mothers has been well documented through numerous state inquiries and studies, the status quo remains. How can we, as feminists, continue to support a status quo that leads to such negative outcomes for women?
Valerie J. Andrews (Wed,) studied this question.