Dear future President,

Adoption is a hard and emotional process that can be made easier by a few changes. Paperwork could be made more simple to make the process go by more quickly. Also, counseling and preparation for both birth and adoptive parents should be provided so everyone can make an informed decision. Many adoption cases have proven to take a toll on everyone involved in the process. On the website Adoptive Families Circles they state that “20 percent of all domestic adoptions fail every year.” One of the things that causes these failures is the birth parents changing their minds about the adoption at the last minute. Birth and adoptive parents going through the process in the United States are affected by this. Adoption should be one of the main focus for you because there are many children in need all over the country. If the adoption process is simpler and has an easier transition for everyone involved I believe that the success rate of domestic adoptions would go up.

I think that all adoption paperwork should be made the same all over the country and there should be less of it. This would make the whole process go a lot smoother and faster which would give children homes faster. Each private adoption agency in the country has a different process in which they go through their paperwork which can lead to a lot of confusion. Although each state has its own adoption regulations and laws, each private adoption agency has their own process. In Texas alone there are over 100 different private adoption agencies which is 100 different ways to do things. This matters because the process could be made much faster just by a set way that everyone does it. There are other things that should be fixed or added in the adoption process. Counseling and preparation should be provided for both the birth parents and the adoptive parents. This will help ensure that everyone is making an informed decision by knowing all of the factors involved in adoption. In domestic adoptions 20% of the time the adoption falls through. One of the many reasons that all of these adoption failures happen is because either the birth parents or the adoptive parents change their minds. Sometimes birth parents don't realize all that they are giving up and adoptive parents don’t realize all that they are really taking on. So with counseling and preparation both sides of parents will be able to make their final decision right off the bat. All of this matters because everyone involved in the adoption process should be able to make a confident choice of what is best for them in the long run. Adoption can be very difficult and long and with just a few changes it can be made very simple.

The other side to this argument is that the adoption process is fine the way that it is and changing it could cause more problems in the future. Some people think that making all of the paperwork the same would take away the individuality of the different agencies. Also it could mess up the systems that they have been working with for a very long time. Adoption agencies have about a 80 percent success rate for their adoption and even though this is not perfect it is a pretty good turn out. This matters because some people think that change is not always a good thing. Going into people's workplaces and changing the way that they do their job could cause more trouble than it is worth.

The president should make it required for birth and adoptive parent to go through counseling and to make the paperwork more simple and the same for every private agency in the united States. The topic of adoption most connects to global goal number 3. Adoption is a really good thing and it can give children a sense that they belong to a family. This is good to their overall well being and mental health, and will give them family and stability. A way that this connects to the UN global goals is because this is to insure that more children have homes and are raised in an environment where they have loving parents that can provide for them. This should be one of your top priorities because children all over the country are in need of a family.

Sincerely,

Megan B.

The percentage of domestic adoptions could be higher if less of the domestic adoptions fell through.