When Abortion Was Illegal, Adoption Was a Cruel Industry. Are We Returning to Those Days?

by Pema Levy

A few weeks ago, before the final decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which ended the constitutional right to an abortion, I downloaded the audio version of American Baby: A Mother, A Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption by the journalist Gabrielle Glaser. Glaser’s book details the history of what became known as the “Baby Scoop Era,” the period from 1945 to 1973 during which as many as three to four million young, unmarried women surrendered their newborns to an exploitative adoption industry, and for many against their will, were permanently severed from their child.

When Abortion Was Illegal, Adoption Was a Cruel Industry. Are We Returning to Those Days?

Related:

The cruel secret history of a Jewish adoption agency that separated siblings

Woman discovers shocking truth of maternity home where she gave birth

Are abortion bans like Sharia? Not even close, say Muslims

When news broke that the Supreme Court was poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, critics on social media, at rallies and on talk shows called Republicans the “American Taliban” and griped that they wanted to bring Sharia, or Islamic law, to the U.S.

Under most interpretations of Islamic law, abortion is permitted within the first 120 days. Today, some American states have tougher abortion laws than Afghanistan, which allows the procedure if the mother’s life is at risk or if the child will be born with severe disabilities.

Are abortion bans like Sharia? Not even close, say Muslims