Latest Adoption News
Russian parliament passes first reading of an adoption ban for countries allowing gender transition
MOSCOW (AP) — The lower house of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday gave overwhelming approval to the first reading of a proposed law to prohibit the adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transitioning is legal. The measure, which would need to pass two...
Asian Development Bank raises growth forecast for region, but warns of risks from trade sanctions
Developing economies in Asia are forecast to grow at a 5.0% annual pace this year, helped by a strong U.S. economy and surging demand for computer chips that power artificial intelligence, the Asian Development Bank said in a report Wednesday. The forecast was revised upward slightly...
Families from Tennessee to California seek humanitarian parole for adopted children in Haiti
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — At only 6 years old, Esai Reed has endured three emergency evacuations from orphanages across Haiti as gangs pillage and plunder their way through once peaceful communities. He is now in northern Haiti under the care of a U.S. organization after the...
Takeaways from AP’s story on the role of the West in widespread fraud with South Korean adoptions
Western governments eagerly approved and even pushed for the adoption of South Korean children for decades, despite evidence that adoption agencies were aggressively competing for kids, pressuring mothers and bribing hospitals, an investigation led by The Associated Press has found. ...
Western nations were desperate for Korean babies. Now many adoptees believe they were stolen
Yooree Kim marched into a police station in Paris and told an officer she wanted to report a crime. Forty years ago, she said, she was kidnapped from the other side of the world, and the French government endorsed it. She wept as she described years spent piecing it together,...
Widespread adoption fraud separated generations of Korean children from their families, AP finds
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As the plane descended into Seoul, Robert Calabretta swaddled himself in a blanket, his knees tucked into his chest like a baby in the womb. A single tear ran down his cheek. The 34-year-old felt like a newborn — he was about to meet his parents for the...
Adoption fraud separated generations of South Korean children from their families, AP finds
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s government, Western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence they were being procured through questionable or downright unscrupulous means, an investigation led...
South Korean truth commission says it found more evidence of forced adoptions in the 1980s
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean commission found evidence that women were pressured into giving away their infants for foreign adoptions after giving birth at government-funded facilities where thousands of people were confined and enslaved from the 1960s to the 1980s. The...
China's halt of foreign adoptions leaves questions about pending cases
BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government is ending its intercountry adoption program, and the U.S. is seeking clarification on how the decision will affect hundreds of American families with pending applications. In a phone call with U.S. diplomats in China, Beijing said it “will...
Costa Rica arrests 5 child welfare agency officials on charges they trafficked children for adoption
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Five officials from Costa Rica's child welfare agency were arrested on charges they were involved in trafficking children for the purpose of adoption, authorities said Wednesday. Randall Zúñiga, head of the country’s main investigative agency, the...
