The Baby Scoop Era was a period in United States history starting after the end of World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · and ending in 1972,[1] characterized by an increased rate of pre-marital pregnancies over the preceding period, along with a higher rate of newborn adoption. From approximately 1940 to 1970, it is estimated that up to 4 million mothers in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language surrendered newborn babies to adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another who is not kin and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents. Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status and as such; 2 million during the 1960s alone. Annual numbers for non-relative adoptions increased from an estimated 33,800 in 1951 to a peak of 89,200 in 1970, then quickly declined to an estimated 47,700 in 1975.[2][3] (This does not include the number of infants adopted and raised by relatives.[4]) In contrast, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that only 14,000 infants were "voluntarily" surrendered in 2003.[5]

This period of history has been documented in scholarly books such as Wake Up Little Susie and Beggars and Choosers, both by historian Rickie Sollinger, and social histories such as The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler, a professor of photography at the Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877 and is located at the base of College Hill and contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and offer joint courses. Applicants are required to complete who exhibited an art installation by the same title. It is also the theme of the documentary Gone To A Good Home by Film Australia Film Australia was a company established by the Government of Australia to produce films about Australia. Its mission was to create an audio-visual record of Australian life, through the commissioning, distribution and management of programs that deal with matters of national interest or illustrate and interpret aspects of Australian life.

Beginning in the 1940s and 1950s, illegitimacy At common law, legitimacy is the status of a child who is born to parents who are legally married to one another, or who is born shortly after the parents' marriage ends through divorce. The opposite of legitimacy is the status of being illegitimate – born to a woman and a man who are not married to one another began to be defined in terms of psychological deficits on the part of the mother.[6] At the same time, a liberalization of sexual mores combined with restrictions on access to birth control led to an increase in premarital pregnancies.[7] The dominant psychological and social work view was that the large majority of unmarried mothers were better off being separated by adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another who is not kin and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents. Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status and as such from their newborn The term infant derives from the Latin word infans, meaning "unable to speak or speechless." It is typically applied to children between the ages of 1 month and 12 months; however, definitions vary between birth and 3 years of age babies.[8] According to Mandell (2007), "In most cases, adoption was presented to the mothers as the only option and little or no effort was made to help the mothers keep and raise the children."[9]

Solinger (2000) defines the change that occurred during this period that differentiated it from preceding times:

"Black single mothers were expected to keep their babies as most unwed mothers, black and white, had done throughout American history. Unmarried white mothers, for the first time in American history, were expected to put their babies up for adoption." [10]

Solinger also describes the social pressures that led to this unusual trend:

"For white girls and women illegitimately pregnant in the pre-Roe era, the main chance for attaining home and marriage... rested on the aspect of their rehabilitation that required relinquishment... More than 80 percent of white unwed mothers in maternity homes came to this decision... acting in effect as breeders for white, adoptive parents, for whom they supplied up to nearly 90 percent of all nonrelative infants by the mid-1960s... Unwed mothers were defined by psychological theory as not-mothers... As long as these females had no control over their reproductive lives, they were subject to the will and the ideology of those who watched over them. And the will, veiled though it often was, called for unwed mothers to acknowledge their shame and guilt, repent, and rededicate themselves." [11]

According to Ellison:

From 1960-70, 27 percent of all births to married women between the ages of 15 and 29 were conceived premaritally. Yet the etiology of single, white, middle-class women's conceptions had shifted again and were now perceived as symptoms of female neurosis ... the majority (85-95 percent) of single, white, middle-class women, who either could not or would not procure an illegal or therapeutic abortion, were encouraged, and at times coerced, to adopt-away their child (Edwards, 1993; McAdoo, 1992; Pannor et al., 1979; Solinger, 1992, 1993).[12]

In popular usage, Singer Celeste Billhartz uses the term on her website to refer to the era covered by her work "The Mothers Project." A letter on Senator Bill Finch's website uses the term as well. Writer Betty Mandell references the term in her article "Adoption". The term was also used in a 2004 edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

"She and many others opposed to adoption gave birth to children who were later adopted in what some call the "baby scoop era" - a period generally after World War II and before Roe versus Wade in 1973 - when unmarried mothers were shunned by society and maternity homes were in vogue ..."[13]

Contents

Similar social developments in other countries

The Baby Scoop Era was not limited to the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language. A similar social development took place simultaneously in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land,[14] New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori language name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud. The Realm of New Zealand also,[15] Australia,[16] and Canada The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three.[17]

The Baby Scoop Era in Canada (Caucasian babies from born from Caucasian mothers) occurred until abortion was legalized in 1988 after the infamous case against Dr. Henry Morgentaler. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._v._Morgentaler R. v. Morgentaler 1 S.C.R. 30 was a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada wherein the abortion provision in the Criminal Code of Canada was found to be unconstitutional, as it violated a woman's right under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to "security of person". Ever since this ruling, there have been no laws

The BSE in Canada lasted over 15 years longer than in the US.

The term Baby Scoop Era is similar to the term Sixties Scoop, which was coined by Patrick Johnston, author of Native Children and the Child Welfare System.[18] "Sixties Scoop" refers to the Canadian practice, beginning in the 1960s and continuing until the 1980s, of apprehending unusually high numbers of Native children from their families and fostering or adopting them out, usually into white families.[19] A similar event happened in Australia where Aboriginal children, sometimes referred to as the Stolen Generation The Stolen Generations is a term used to describe those children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Federal and State government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals occurred in the period between approximately 1869 and, were removed from their families and placed into internment camps, orphanages and other institutions.

End of the Baby Scoop Era

Infant adoptions began declining in the early 1970s, a decline often attributed to the court case Roe v. Wade Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 , was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court held that a woman's right to an abortion is determined by the stage of pregnancy, and the state cannot prohibit abortion before viability. After viability, the state cannot prohibit abortion if "it is necessary, in, but which also partially resulted from social changes that enabled white middle-class mothers to choose single motherhood. Brozinsky (1994) speaks of the decline in newborn adoptions as reflecting a freedom of choice embraced by youth and the women's movement of the 1960s-1970s, resulting in an increase in the number of unmarried mothers who kept their babies as opposed to surrendering them. "In 1970, approximately 80% of the infants born to single mothers were placed for adoption, whereas by 1983 that figure had dropped to only 4%."[20]

In contrast to numbers in the 1960s and 1970s, from 1989 to 1995 less than 1% of children born to never-married women were surrendered for adoption.[21]

Australian decline

It is generally understood that the decline in adoptions in Australia during the 1970s was linked to a 1973 law providing for financial assistance to single parents:

"As it is still historically understood that the sole parent's benefit did not come into existence until July 1973 and was understood to be a major factor in the decline of adoptable babies, we feel quite comfortable in our assertion that at least until 1973 no alternatives to adoption were being offered. Post-1973 those alternatives were still being hidden from many uninformed young women, but we are unable to ascertain how many mothers who lost their babies had actually been given this information during the 1970s"[22]

References

Constructs such as ibid. Ibid. is the term used to provide an endnote or footnote citation or reference for a source that was cited in the preceding endnote or footnote. It is similar in meaning to idem (meaning something that has been mentioned previously; the same) abbreviated Id., which is commonly used in legal citation and loc. cit. Loc. cit. is a footnote or endnote term used to repeat the title and page number for a given author. Loc. cit. is used in place of ibid. when the reference is not only to the work immediately preceding, but also refers to the same page. Loc. cit. is also used instead of op. cit. when reference is made to a work previously cited and to the same are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (), or an abbreviated title.
  1. ^ The Baby Scoop Era Research Initiative
  2. ^ Pelton, L. (1988). "The Institution of Adoption: Its Sources and Perpetuation" in Infertility and Adoption, A Guide for Social Work Practice, Deborah Valentine, Editor. (pp. 88-89)
  3. ^ Maza, P.L. (1984). Adoption trends: 1944-1975. Child Welfare Research Notes #9. Washington, DC: Administration for Children, Youth, and Families, 1984.
  4. ^ ibid
  5. ^ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Child Welfare Information Gateway (2005). Voluntary Relinquishment for Adoption: Numbers and Trends
  6. ^ Solinger, R. (2000). Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade. (p. 88)
  7. ^ Petrie, A. (1998). Gone to an Aunt's: Remembering Canada's Homes for Unwed Mothers. (pp. 7-8)
  8. ^ O'Shaughnassy, T. (1994). Adoption, Social Work Social work is a profession that strives to address social problems. Social workers draw on the social and behavioural sciences to meet the needs of clients. For example, social workers may provide psychotherapy to individuals and families, produce assessments of child welfare for government and law enforcement, and work with clients in prisons, and Social Theory (p. 115)
  9. ^ Mandell, B. (2007). "Adoption. " New Politics, Vol. 11, No. 2, Winter 2007, Whole No. 42
  10. ^ Solinger, R. (2000). Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade. (p. 149)
  11. ^ Solinger, R. (2000). Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade. (p. 95)
  12. ^ Ellison, M. (2003). "Authoritative Knowledge and Single Women's Unintentional Pregnancies, Abortions, Adoption and Single Motherhood: Social Stigma and Structural Violence," in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol 17(3), 2003, page 326.
  13. ^ Lohmann, B. "World of Adoption; Forced to Give Up Her Baby, She Now Opposes Adoption," Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 21, 2004, p. G-1.
  14. ^ Trackers International, "Survey 1000"
  15. ^ Shawyer, J. (1979). Death by Adoption
  16. ^ Moor, M. (2007). Silent Violence: Australia's White Stolen Children. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Doctorate of Philosophy in Arts, Media and Culture at Griffith University, Nathan, Qld.
  17. ^ Petrie, A. (1998). Gone to an Aunt's: Remembering Canada's Homes for Unwed Mothers.
  18. ^ Reder, D. (2007). Indian re:ACT(ions) University of British Columbia
  19. ^ Lyons, T. (2000). "Stolen Nation," in Eye Weekly, January 13, 2000. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.
  20. ^ Brozinsky, A. (1994). Surrendering an Infant for Adoption: The Birthmother Experience. In The Psychology of Adoption, D. Brozinsky and M. Schechter (Eds.). New York: Oxford University Press. (p. 297)
  21. ^ Chandra, A., Abma, J., Maza, P., & Bachrach, C. (1999). Adoption, adoption seeking, and relinquishment for adoption in the United States. Advance Data (No. 306) from Vital and Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National center for Health Statistics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad306.pdf
  22. ^ Parliamentary Paper No. 366, Standing Committee on Social Issues, Report on Adoption Practices, Second Interim Report, Transcripts of Evidence, 16 June 1999 - 25 October 1999

Further reading

Portrayals in Film and Other Media

Adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another who is not kin and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents. Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status and as such and foster care Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"
By country Australia Adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a person under the age of 18 with a parent or parents other than the birth parents. Australia allows local adoptions , known child adoptions (adoption by relatives, stepparents or carers), and intercountry adoptions (adoption of children born overseas). Adoptions are handled by state and territorial · France Adoption in France is codified in the French Civil Code in two distinct forms: simple adoption and plenary adoption · Guatemala The current laws in Guatemala allow private adoptions like in the United States. This type of adoption is also the most popular way of adopting from Guatemala. In 2006 4,135 children were adopted from Guatemala, most of them via private adoptions. In these cases the adoptions are usually handled by attorneys who represent the adoptive parents and · Italy As in most jurisdictions, prospective adoptive parents are required to undergo assessment and must show that they will make suitable parents. Italian law requires adopters to be married for at least 3 years. There are also restrictions on the age difference between the prospective parents and the child or children they wish to adopt. Adoption by · United States Adoption in the United States is the legal act of adoption, of permanently placing a person under the age of 18 with a parent or parents other than the birth parents in the United States
Issues Adopted child syndrome Adopted child syndrome is a controversial term that has been used to explain behaviors in adopted children that are claimed to be related to their adoptive status. Specifically, these include problems in bonding, attachment disorders, lying, stealing, defiance of authority, and acts of violence. The term has never achieved acceptance in the · Adoption disclosure Adoption disclosure refers to the official release of information relating to the legal adoption of a child. Throughout much of the 20th century, many Western countries had legislation intended to prevent adoptees and adoptive families from knowing the identities of birth parents and vice-versa. After a decline in the social stigma surrounding · Adoption home study A home study or homestudy is a screening of the home and life of prospective adoptive parents prior to allowing an adoption to take place. In some places, and in all international adoptions, a home study is required by law. Even where it is not legally mandated, it may be required by an adoption agency. Depending on the location and agency, · Adoption reunion registry Generally, such adoption registries exist only in countries which practise closed adoption, i.e. adoption in which the full identities of the birth parents and the adopting family are not disclosed · Adoption tax credit If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. You may remove this message if you improve the article or otherwise object to deletion for any reason. However please explain why you object to the deletion, either in your edit summary or on the talk page. If this · Aging out Aging out is American popular culture vernacular used to describe anytime a youth leaves a formal system of care designed to provide services below a certain age level · Child abuse Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional mistreatment of children. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. Most child abuse · Child laundering Child laundering is the stealing and selling of children to adopting parents under false pretenses. Often the adoption agency or adoption facilitator hides or falsifies the child's origin to make the child appear to be a legitimate orphan by manipulating birth certificates, intake records, or records regarding the deaths of the child's parents who · Closed adoption Closed adoption is the process by where an infant is adopted by another family, and the record of the biological parent(s) is kept sealed. (Often, the biological father is not recorded—even on the original birth certificate.) An adoption of an older child who already knows his or her biological parent(s) cannot be made closed or secret. This · Cultural variations in adoption Adoption is an arrangement by which a child whose biological parents are unable to care for it is "adopted" and given the same legal and social status as though he/she were the biological child of the adoptive parents. For example, under a system of adoption, if a parent dies intestate, the adopted child stands in exactly the same · Disruption · Genealogical bewilderment Genealogical bewilderment is a term referring to potential identity problems that could be experienced by a child who was either fostered, adopted, or conceived via an assisted reproductive technology procedure such as surrogacy or gamete donation . There is some controversy surrounding this topic · International adoption International adoption, or intercountry adoption, is a type of adoption in which an individual or couple becomes the legal and permanent parents of a child born in another country. In general, prospective adoptive parents must meet the legal adoption requirements of their country of residence and those of the country in which the child was born · Interracial adoption · Language of adoption The language of adoption is changing and evolving, and it has become a controversial issue tied closely to adoption reform efforts. The controversy arises over the use of terms which, while designed to be more appealing or less offensive to some persons affected by adoption, may simultaneously cause offense or insult to others. This controversy · LGBT adoption LGBT adoption is the adoption of children by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Adoption by same-sex couples is currently legal in many countries throughout the world · Open adoption Open adoption means that the birth mother and adopted family know who each other are. Even in an open adoption, the birth parents' legal rights of guardianship are terminated, and the adoptive parents become the legal parents. There are no guarantees that the adoptive parents will allow contact between the child and the birth parents. In some · Sealed birth records Sealed birth records, as opposed to open records, refers to the practice of sealing the original birth certificate of an infant upon adoption. The original sealed birth certificate is replaced with a birth certificate declaring the adoptee to be the child of his or her adoptive parents. Many states, provinces and countries adopted this practice in
Laws Access to Adoption Records Act The Access to Adoption Records Act , is an Ontario law passed in 2008 regarding the disclosure of information between parties involved in adoptions. It is the successor to the 2005 Adoption Information Disclosure Act, parts of which were struck down in 2007 in a ruling by Judge Edward Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court. The bill passed third · Adoption Information Disclosure Act The Adoption Information Disclosure Act, formally An Act respecting the disclosure of information and records to adopted persons and birth parents, also known as Bill 183, is an Ontario law regarding the disclosure of information between parties involved in adoptions · Adoption and Safe Families Act The Adoption and Safe Families Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 19, 1997 after having been approved by the United States Congress earlier in the month · Christian law of adoption in India · Foster Care Independence Act The Foster Care Independence Act is an Act of Congress signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 14, 1999 · Hague Convention · Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956) The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act was enacted in India in 1956 as part of the Hindu Code Bills. The other legislations enacted during this time include the Hindu Marriage Act , the Hindu Succession Act (1956), and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (1956). All of these acts were put forth under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, and · Islamic adoptional jurisprudence Islamic regulations regarding adoption are distinct from western practices and customs of adoption. Contrary to what happens in the western world, a child does not formally leave their biological family to enter the one that raises them. While raising someone's else child is allowed and, in the case of an orphan, even encouraged, the child does · Uniform Adoption Act The Uniform Adoption Act is a model law (Uniform Act) proposed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. It attempts to "be a comprehensive and uniform state adoption code that:
History Adoption in ancient Rome In ancient Rome, adoption of boys was a fairly common procedure, particularly in the upper senatorial class. The need for a male heir and the expense of raising children were strong incentives to have at least one son, but not too many children. Adoption, the obvious solution, also served to cement ties between families, thus fostering and · Baby scoop era · Home Children

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the United States Baby Scoop Era In the forward to Unlearning Adoption A Guide to Family Preservation and Protection you pin point a moment of clarity you had during a Law elective as a pivotal realization that brought about both this

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LOL, thanks x BSE refers to the . Baby Scoop Era. Not sure, but it may Can someone lend a hand me find law for inquiring for an adopt child? Hi, I am trying to locate laws and punishments for people searching for a birth child back they ...

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Does anyone know when the Baby Scoop Era ended and why then?
Q. I have heard the Baby Scoop Era (BSE) described as the time in the 50's, 60's, and 70's when many single, pregnant women were forced by their families to give up their children to adoption. Often they were hidden in their homes or sent to maternity homes. Fathers of some of the adopted children were also victimized by a culture intolert of pre-marital pregnancy - many wanted to marry their children's mothers but they were forbidden to see them. So, I have 2 questions. I have read in some places that the BSE ended in the 70's and others say that the BSE went into the early 80's. Which is it? And why the demise in that decade - why not earlier or later? Thanks for your help. Hi Summy - I have tried to read Ann Fessler's book but sob… [cont.]
Asked by grapesgum - Mon Nov 12 11:47:32 2007 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Hi Grapesgum, The "baby scoop era" is a disgraceful dark era in U.S. adoption history, marked by shame, lies, secrecy, inhumane & unethical practices all covered up by totally closed adoptions & sealed records. Young pregnant women, mostly white, middle to upper class, were sent away to maternity homes and given no other choice except to relinquish their babies to adoption. They were not allowed to communicate with the fathers or with anyone else. It was bad for the mothers, it was bad for the children. The babies were snatched away from them at birth often before they were able to even see them. Those who were involved in baby scoop era adoptions are affected in some ways still today. The mid to late 1970's marked the first… [cont.]
Answered by julie j - Mon Nov 12 12:15:24 2007

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