Adoption rates plunge - so is abortion a factor?

Published on Thursday 24 April 2008 22:26

THE number of adoptions in Scotland has dropped dramatically over the last four decades, especially of babies, it emerged yesterday.

Figures reveal the number of adoptions of children in Scotland in 2006 was just 418 compared to 2,162 in 1967. The comparison is even greater with children aged under one, with only 16 babies adopted in 2006 and 1,279 in 1967.

The figures were revealed in a written answer to Jackson Carlaw, Tory public-health spokesman, who has called for a debate on a link between the drop in adoptions in Scotland and the rise in the number of abortions.

He has queried if the 1967 Abortion Act is linked to the fall in adoptions. There has been a 750 per cent increase in abortions in Scotland since 1968, from 1,537 to 13,081 in 2006. But experts dismissed this as too simplistic an explanation.

"I'm not issuing a moralising polemic against the principle of abortion," said Mr Carlaw. "I am merely analysing the trends that have followed the passing of the Abortion Act, seeking to bring them to public attention and hoping to encourage public debate about whether we are comfortable with the direction in which we are heading.

"It seems to me that, however worthy, sex education has failed. I would argue that there should be a fresh public discussion."

He went on:

"We must surely move away from the current position where adoption is viewed as being in some way inhumane. It is just as moral and ethical an option for pregnant women who – for whatever reason – feel unable to become mothers."

Barbara Hudson, the director of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) in Scotland, warned against a simplistic approach to the issue. "It would be hard to push through the argument that there is a link between abortion and adoption to any final meaningful conclusion," she said.

"That is partly because abortion is about women making choices about their lives and because giving birth and then giving up a child is a very different and difficult experience."

She added: "Adoption of babies was at its height in the 1960s and 1970s, when people had different views about having children out of wedlock and when social-security support for young and single mothers was very different from today.

"What we have now more often is children being adopted by a step-parent, somebody who has married a natural parent, or cases of children being adopted out of a fostering arrangement."

She continued: "The real problem we have is a mismatch between would-be adoption parents and the children.

"Usually, the would-be parents come with aspirations of a healthy, very young child, when the reality is that the children concerned are older and either have special needs or come from troubled backgrounds."

The interpretation from the BAAF was supported by the Scottish Government. A spokesman said: "The fall in adoption levels reflects societal changes and increasing focus on supporting families to stay together.

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