Decline in foreign adoptions by families in U.S. accelerates
NEW YORK — The number of foreign children adopted by U.S. parents dropped more than 12 percent last year, accelerating a decline that’s now continued for 13 years, according to new State Department figures.
The department’s report for the 2017 fiscal year, released Friday, shows 4,714 adoptions from abroad, down from 5,372 in 2016 and nearly 80 percent below the high of 22,884 in 2004. The number has fallen every year since then.
China, as has been the case for several years, accounted for the most children adopted in the U.S. by far. But its total of 1,905 was down nearly 15 percent from 2016 and far below a peak of 7,903 in 2005.
Suzanne Lawrence, the State Department’s special adviser on children’s issues, attributed the lower numbers to increased interest in domestic adoption among China’s growing middle class. She also said new Chinese regulations affecting nongovernmental organizations had disrupted partnerships involving some U.S. adoption agencies.
In 2016, Congo was second after China, accounting for 359 adoptions. The number fell to four in 2017.
For a third straight year, there were no adoptions from Russia, which once accounted for hundreds of U.S. adoptions annually but imposed a ban that fully took effect in 2014.
However, the National Council for Adoption and many of the adoption agencies it represents have faulted the State Department for failing to reverse the decline in foreign adoptions. This constituency has decried a newly implemented accrediting system that will subject them to tighter monitoring and oversight and raise fees either for the agencies or for the families they serve.
Assistant Secretary of State Carl Risch, whose dossier includes the Office of Children’s Issues, issued a statement Thursday saying efforts to maintain international adoption as a viable option “are greatly undermined when foreign countries lose trust in our accreditation system.”