newjerseynewsroom.com

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Pardon me while I choke "The executive director of the Social Movement for the Rights of Children and Adolescents, Felipe García, told IPS the country should not "race" to reopen foreign adoptions, but should first offer a decent life to the children here in Guatemala." They don't offer a "decent life" to the children who live there now- lack of medical care, education and food for starters! In the US, homes for unwed mothers are considered a good thing, but in Guatemala, offering to let a mother live in a home that will provide her with decent food and actual medical care is a "fattening house?" Our daughter's Mother told us, when we met 4 years after the adoption, that she relinquished for many reasons- poverty was one, but also the lack of opportunities, especially for poor women, weighed into it. She said, over and over, that our daughter had opportunities of which her older daughters still in Guatemala couldn't even dream. Ban anyone who has ever tried to process a fraudulent adoption (and everyone in their office) from ever processing another adoption. Make it clear that fraud will not be tolerated, but in a country where so many live on less than $1 a day, there is no need to pay women to give up their children. They're trying to do it often to a friend of mine who has a medical clinic there, and he has to tell him he can't help them. If you want to end adoption, then get to the root cause- abject poverty, lack of education, lack of affordable access to birth control, and a lack of respect for women having the right to say what happens to their bodies.