Adoptions Have Increased 3%, More Children Will be Adopted Thanks to Abortion Bans

A new study has revealed that domestic adoptions of American children increased by over 3% in the U.S. between 2019 and 2022, which may be due in part to increased restrictions on international adoptions put in place by countries like China and Ukraine. While the report did not specify whether the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision that allowed states to implement pro-life protections has contributed to an increase in adoptions due to statistics “not yet [being] available,” state statistics and experts suggest that the trend may already be occurring.

The report, released Monday by the National Council For Adoption, found that “private domestic non-stepparent adoptions” increased by 3.17% between 2019 and 2022. The organization tallied 25,503 domestic adoptions in 2022, up from 24,720 in 2019. At the same time, the study highlighted that babies adopted by U.S. couples from other countries declined sharply by 57.05% over the same time period.

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The report further pointed out that this is likely due to the dramatic decrease of adoptions from the two countries that have historically provided the most children for international adoptions, China and Ukraine. “[I]n 2020, China suspended the processing of intercountry adoptions, and in 2024, the country formally ended its intercountry adoption program,” the study noted. As a result, there were only 218 adoptions from China from 2020 to 2023, compared to 819 adoptions in 2019 and a peak of 7,903 adoptions in 2005. As for babies from Ukraine, a 96.64% decrease in adoptions occurred from 2019 to 2023 as a result of Russia’s invasion.

As to the effect that the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision has had on the adoption rate, the study stated that “statistical evidence is not yet available to assess the impact of this decision on adoptions in the U.S.” However, data from states like Texas suggest that state pro-life laws such as its 2021 six-week protection law as well as further protections enacted after the Dobbs decision may be contributing to a rise in babies being adopted who would otherwise have been aborted. The study found that domestic adoptions in the Lone Star State increased to 2,268 in 2021 from 2,117 in 2020. They further increased to 2,500 in 2022 and to 2,533 in 2023.

In a Washington Times analysis of the report, multiple pro-life advocates agreed that state pro-life protections lead to more positive outcomes like adoption.

“This is again solid evidence that pro-life policies can increase the number of adoptions,” said Michael New, a professor of social research at The Catholic University of America and a scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

Mark Lee Dickson of Right to Life Across Texas concurred. “When abortion is taken off the table, it allows mothers who find themselves in an unexpected pregnancy the ability to look at their real options.”

Kristi Hamrick, vice president of Media and Policy at Students for Life of America, observed that the new report is “on-trend with other data we’re seeing in Texas and calls for increased government funding of child tax credits. With more states passing pro-life laws since 2022, we have more children to welcome and care for.”

Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston, further pointed out that language within the Dobbs decision highlighted an increase in state “haven” laws that allow women with unplanned pregnancies to place their babies for adoption anonymously. “I think the Dobbs decision is having the effect of allowing more children to be carried to term, and mothers can then consider whether to place their children up for adoption.”

Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, agreed that the outlook is bright for babies born in the post-Dobbs landscape.

“Since the Dobbs decision, over 20,000 unborn lives have been saved,” she told The Washington Stand. “It seems natural to think that some of these babies would have had an adoption plan made for them. We know that God has a beautiful plan for each one of them, and that every life saved has been a great gift to this world.”

LifeNews Note: Dan Hart writes for the Family Research Council. He is the senior editor of The Washington Stand.