The political advertisement attacking Republican Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman as “un-American” for having adopted daughters from China and India is an affront to common decency and to the many families made complete by international adoption.
International adoption is an extremely personal issue for perspective adoptive parents and children, and attacks like this create misconceptions and inflame prejudices that make it more difficult for families on all ends of the international adoption spectrum. The fact is, we have reached a crisis point in international adoptions, with numbers of successful adoptions falling from a peak of 22,884 in 2004 to just 9,320 last year. The people hurt most by these trends are the children themselves.
To attack any family offering a loving home to a child in need is wrong, and we must all come together to help strengthen the international adoption system. We call on Rep. Ron Paul to disavow this advertisement and urge he and the other presidential candidates to work towards positive outcomes for children and families.
We adopted our son from Moscow in 1996 and we CANNOT imagine life without him!
We have 5 biological children 1 adopted from Guatemala and in the process of a second adoption from Bulgaria. Many people have no idea of how difficult it can be to adopt in the United States. prior to our first adoption we had begun a domestic adoption and lost $6000.00 . We considered suing the agency but our attorney said it would only cost us so much more in legal fees.
Every child is deserving of a home regardless of what country they are from, and the ones that are usually slamming people for adopting international are the ones least likely to adopt , regardless if it’s international or domestic.