The Supreme Court has tended to side in favor of religious rights.
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In an unanimous decision, the nine justices said the city of Philadelphia was wrong to exclude a Catholic agency from its adoption programs.
In the 20th century Magdalene laundries were punitive institutions where young “fallen” women – pregnant and unmarried – endured a daily regime of silence, prayer and hard labour. The last Magdalene laundry closed in 1996.
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The conservative Catholic moral code that underpinned adoption in Ireland penalised vulnerable women and their children. Now a proposed new law seeks to redress the impact of this legacy of shame.
Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have bolstered the conservative wing of the Supreme Court.
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Conservative justices are redefining religious freedom to mean the protection of individuals or groups to practice their faith as they see fit, argues a constitutional law expert.
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The legal order has struggled under a veil of invisibility for years. But research shows it provides better outcomes for many vulnerable children
Movie star and comedian Tiffany Haddish, left, is a former foster child who now advocates on behalf of foster children.
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Visits between foster children and their biological families are being disrupted and reunification hearings delayed.
Knowing the truth about one’s origins is crucial to identity formation, according to adoption experts.
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Experts recommend adopted children be told about their origins, no matter how difficult the circumstances, but doing so is tricky for adoptive parents.
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Society shapes people’s preferences and emphasises the value of having genetically related children.
Millions of shelter animals are adopted in the U.S. every year.
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A new study analyzes the language in nearly 680,000 pet adoption ads.
‘Simple adoption’ is when an adopted child gets to maintain ties to their birth family.
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‘Simple adoption’ can preserve the identity of an adopted child by giving them a legal connection to both their birth family and their new family.
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More needs to be done by the government and local authorities to recruit diverse adopters and foster carers – including Muslims.
Children who have darker skin wait longer on average to leave foster care.
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In the US, black children wait longer to be adopted and cost less to adopt than white children.
A narwhal is spotted swimming with a group of belugas in the St. Lawrence.
Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM).
What can the story of a lost narwhal and his beluga family tell us about interspecies adoptions?
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Shared parental leave can make a huge difference to all parents – not just families with two biological parents.
Whether barriers to adoption are always a bad thing is up for debate.
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We often hear that adoptions in Australia should be easier and quicker. But many safeguards in the adoption process are in place for a reason.
The number of Guatemalan children adopted by foreign parents dropped from 4,100 in 2008 to 58 in 2010, after the country drastically curtailed the practice.
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In 2005, almost 46,000 children were adopted across borders. Ten years later, just 12,000 were. The foreign adoption system is imploding, potentially putting children’s lives in danger.
South Korea continues to have a problem with abandoned babies and ongoing overseas adoption despite economic growth.
Jessica Walton
The 1988 Seoul Olympics shed light on South Korea’s institutionalised practice of international adoption.
It hurts.
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It can be a destructive cycle for mothers whose children are taken into care.
Andrea Swifte as the mother in Big Heart: a nuanced and not unsympathetic performance.
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Big Heart at Theatreworks questions Australia’s generosity through the tale of a woman who adopts a child from five continents.
The number of men married to each other who have children is rising following legal rulings about marriage equality.
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Research reveals few differences between the parenting of gay men and their straight peers. But it looks like gay fathers could be more apt to volunteer at their children’s schools.
House Speaker Paul Ryan walking into the Capitol on May 4, when the House voted narrowly to accept a bill he shepherded to replace Obamacare.
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Arguments about the AHCA showed deep disagreement on health care coverage. Could this move us toward universal coverage, which some say could be simpler? Don’t hold your breath.