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Articles on Forced adoption

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Wiping away tears, Nita Battise, vice chairperson of the tribal council of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, reacts to the Supreme Court ruling upholding a law that gives Native American families priority in adoptions and foster care placements of tribal children. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Supreme Court affirms Congress’s power over Indian affairs, upholds law protecting Native American children

A Supreme Court ruling has upheld the right of Congress to pass laws about Native American tribes’ rights to self-government.
During the Russian occupation of Luhansk Oblast, 15 kids were allegedly taken from this rehabilitation center and moved to Russia. Wojciech Grzedzinski/The Washington Post via Getty Images

4 plays that dramatize the kidnapping of children during wars

These wartime abductions aren’t specific to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Throughout history, they’ve inflicted trauma on society’s most vulnerable – making them a rich subject matter for the stage.
Tehassi Hill, tribal chairman of the Oneida Nation, stands outside a U.S. appeals court in 2019 after arguments in a case that has made its way to the Supreme Court. AP Photo/Kevin McGill

Native American children’s protection against adoption by non-Indian families is before the Supreme Court

A case before the Supreme Court will determine whether a federal law meant to protect Native American children from being forcibly removed from their families is constitutional.
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. William Murphy/lFlickr

Ireland’s shame: reforming an adoption system marked by secrecy and trauma

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.
People who have been in care are more likely to have children at an early age and are at greater risk of having their own child taken into care. Mika Heittola/Shutterstock

We remove kids from abuse and neglect, but are they better off in the long run?

Most people reasonably assume there is evidence of good long-term outcomes for children who come into contact with child protection systems. Why else would we intervene in the lives of children and their…
Forced adoption mother Linda Miles poses with a photograph of herself, pregnant at the age of 18 years old. AAP/Paul Miller

How adoption went wrong in Australia, and why we’re apologising today

Today in the Great Hall of Parliament House, prime minister Julia Gillard will apologise to those affected by past forced adoption practices. This is the third national apology delivered in recent years…
We may have to apologise for intercountry adoptions in future, just as Victoria has apologised to the children of forced adoption mothers here. AAP/Paul Jeffers

The politics of ‘orphans’ and the dirty tactics of the adoption lobby

You might not have realised it, but it is Adoption Awareness Week. Every year at this time lobbyists pull out the big gun – the celebrity card - and Deborra-Lee Furness hits the airwaves. The messages…

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