"To the Province generally the great advantage and economy of the Adoption
Act can be realized when it is stated that many of the children before
their adoption were costing five and six dollars a week for maintenance."
- 35th Report of the Superintendent of Neglected and Dependent Children
(Ontario, 1928)
".... if an unmarried child gives birth to a baby, those circumstances
alone ought to justify apprehension of the baby before the baby leaves
the hospital unless the unmarried child mother can show that she has
a viable plan for looking after and rearing her baby." - "Board Review"
for the Child Welfare System (Canada, 1983) [NOTE:
no mention is made of ensuring that the
mother has access to social assistance!]
"... the tendency growing out of the demand for babies is to regard
unmarried mothers as breeding machines...(by people intent) upon securing
babies for quick adoptions." - Leontine Young, "Is Money Our Trouble?"
(paper presented at the National Conference of Social Workers, Cleveland,
1953)
". . . babies born out of wedlock [are] no longer considered a social
problem . . . white, physically healthy babies are considered by many
to be a social boon . . . " (i.e. a valuable commodity..). - Social
Work and Social Problems (National Association of Social Workers,
1964)
"Because there are many more married couples wanting to adopt newborn
white babies than there are babies, it may almost be said that they
rather than out of wedlock babies are a social problem. (Sometimes social
workers in adoption agencies have facetiously suggested setting up social
provisions for more 'babybreeding'.)" SOCIAL WORK AND SOCIAL
PROBLEMS, National Association of Social Workers, (Out-of-print)
copyright 1964
"When a worker can see that, had the unmarried mother wanted a baby
for normal reasons, she would have fallen in love, married, and had
a child under normal circumstances, the worker's problem begins to resolve
itself..." OUT OF WEDLOCK, Leontine Young
". . . women having out-of wedlock children tend to be rather disturbed
people. While the American middle-class girl flouting the conventions
by an illegitimate pregnancy may well be emotionally sicker than
her English, working-class cousins."- Jane Rowe, adoption social worker,
1950 - 1970
"White girls who have illegitimate babies by coloured men are often
emotionally ill as well as socially defiant."- Jane Rowe, adoption
social worker 1950 - 1970
"An agency has a responsibility of pointing out to the unmarried mother
the extreme difficulty, if not the impossibility, if she remains unmarried,
of raising her child successfully in our culture without damage to the
child and to herself .... The concept that the unmarried mother and
her child constitute a family is to me unsupportable. There is no family
in any real sense of the word." Joseph H. Reid, Principles, Values,
and Assumptions Underlying Adoption Practice, 1956 NAT'L CON. SOC.
WORK.
" The fact that social work professional attitudes tend to favor the
relinquishment of the baby, as the literature shows, should be faced
more clearly. Perhaps if it were recognized, workers would be in less
conflict and would therefore feel less guilty about their "failures"
(the kept cases)." - Social worker Barbara Hansen Costigan, in
her dissertation, "The Unmarried Mother--Her Decision Regarding Adoption"
(1964)
"If the demand for adoptable babies continues to exceed the supply
then it is quite possible that, in the near future, unwed mothers will
be "punished" by having their children taken from them right after birth.
A policy like this would not be executed -- nor labeled explicitly --
as "punishment." Rather, it would be implemented through such pressures
and labels as "scientific findings," "the best interests of the child,"
"rehabilitation of the unwed mother," and "the stability of the family
and society." Unmarried Mothers, by Clark Vincent (1961)
" OVERCOME OBJECTIONS AND STEREOTYPES
" Counselors must be trained to give women sound reasons that will counter
the desire to keep their babies. One example is to reinforce the notion
that it takes a strong, mature woman to place a child for adoption.
Honestly addressing the issue of financial survival can be compelling
as well. Counselors must communicate that adoption can be an heroic,
responsible choice and that the child benefits tremendously ..." - From
The Missing Piece: Adoption Counseling In Pregnancy Resource Centers
by Curtis J. Young. Family Research Council (2000).
Related links to support, advocacy and action groups:OriginsUSA
, Origins Canada
, Trackers International
(U.K.) and Origins
Inc.
