# Are American Children Ever Adopted by Foreigners? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-children-ever-adopted-by-foreigners/278830 "2004-12-08T22:32:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-children-ever-adopted-by-foreigners/278830/21 "2004-12-09T14:43:45Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > How so? They didn’t adopt because they _wanted_ a(nother) child? They adopted because they _did_ want another child, but didn’t want to further contribute to the population (in addition to us), and also wanted help out someone less fortunate. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-children-ever-adopted-by-foreigners/278830/22 "2004-12-09T17:34:19Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Ah! A kindred spirit. 🆒 A slow one, evidently. If you want to see something that will break your heart, most places have their adoptable children on a website now. This isn’t a very big city and there were four or five kids with severe shaken baby syndrome whose profiles said things like “\_\_\_ can distinguish a few voices” or “\_\_\_ does sometimes respond to human touch” or whatever. Let alone the perfectly healthy black male teenagers who aren’t going anywhere but to another foster home, when all they want is to stay with their siblings somewhere. And then there’s the fact that almost every single one of these kids is described as having behavioral problems and trouble in school, or “mild learning disabilities” which I wouldn’t be surprised is just “freaking depressed and been in six schools in the past three years”. I spent an evening on the site a few months ago for some crazy reason I can’t remember, and it was like a bad car wreck - I couldn’t stop looking until I’d gone through all of them. I have the highest respect and admiration for those rare people who go out looking for special needs kids to adopt. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-children-ever-adopted-by-foreigners/278830/23 "2004-12-10T00:41:12Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Getting better how? (It’s a bit ambiguous from your post.) > > The supply is of white babies is increasing, or white adults are seeking to adopt babies of other colour? There are more people, singles and couples, adopting children who don’t fit into the “ideal” category. I did get this info mostly from tv and reading. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-children-ever-adopted-by-foreigners/278830/24 "2004-12-10T01:45:48Z")
I wanted to how big the difference between the different countries is and looked up a few numbers. I was really surprised. According to [this](http://statistics.adoption.com/adoption_numbers_and_trends.php) site there were over 127 000 adoptions in the US in 1992. In Germany (a bit below a third of the US population) there were 5330 adoptions in 2003, ca 62% of those by relatives or stepparents. 801 children were available for adoption at the end of the year. [(cite, german)](http://www.destatis.de/presse/deutsch/pm2004/p3430082.htm) I had no idea the difference is so big. ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-children-ever-adopted-by-foreigners/278830/25 "2004-12-10T01:47:00Z")
> [@InvidiousCourgette](#): > > Abortion data can be found [here](http://womensissues.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=womensissues&zu=http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/) > > % of pregnancies aborted by country for year 2000: > > US: 24.4% > UK: 22.7% > Canada: 24.3% > Australia: 23.1% > France: 19.6% (1999 data) > Germany: 14.9% > Netherlands: 11.6% > > The original premise does not appear to stand up. Where it does hold true, particularly in Germany and the Netherlands, better sex education provides a more convincing explanation IMHO. Well, the premise stands up better, if you are considering only white people. Black women have a significatly higher abortion rate than white women (34% of abortions in the US are by black women, IIRC); a couple in the UK might have more luck find a white child to adopt in the US, since the abortion rate of white women in the US would be a bit lower than in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-children-ever-adopted-by-foreigners/278830/26 "2004-12-10T06:45:52Z")
> [@kellner](#): > > I wanted to how big the difference between the different countries is and looked up a few numbers. I was really surprised. > According to [this](http://statistics.adoption.com/adoption_numbers_and_trends.php) site there were over 127 000 adoptions in the US in 1992. > In Germany (a bit below a third of the US population) there were 5330 adoptions in 2003, ca 62% of those by relatives or stepparents. 801 children were available for adoption at the end of the year. [(cite, german)](http://www.destatis.de/presse/deutsch/pm2004/p3430082.htm) > > I had no idea the difference is so big. WAG for the huge difference - perhaps Germany (and other countries) make far greater use of fostering? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-children-ever-adopted-by-foreigners/278830.md?page=1)