Relinquished

Adoption is often seen as a cherished way of building families, and also as common ground in the abortion debate. Little attention has gone to the mothers who relinquish infants for private adoption. This book is built on a decade-long study, and it analyses hundreds of in-depth interviews with American mothers who placed their children for domestic adoption.

The interviews show adoption to be a path of constrained choice for women who cannot get an abortion or for whom parenthood is untenable. The author argues that these mothers' stories reflect the country's refusal to support families at the most basic level. The US instead settles on a private, individual answer to a large social problem.

The book is set against the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which revoked federal abortion protections. In this political moment, the author argues, adoption increasingly looks like an institution that separates families and polices parenthood while presenting itself as feel-good family-building. The book gives space to the voices of the relinquishing mothers, which it presents as powerful and heartrending.