LDS Family Services scaling back on their adoption services

[pam]

SALT LAKE CITY — LDS Family Services will no longer operate a full-scale adoption agency, instead shifting all of its adoption- related resources to counseling for birth parents and prospective adoptive parents.

 

"We expect many more LDS families will be able to use this model to adopt" because it will broaden the options for prospective adoptive parents, said David McConkie, the LDS Family Services group manager for Services for Children.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=30347725&nid=148&title=lds-family-services-changing-its-role-in-adoptions

[skippy740]

 

The decision comes at a time when religious-based adoption agencies around the country are under pressure to facilitate adoptions for same-sex couples. LDS Family Services also has been the subject of lawsuits about fathers' rights in adoption cases.

 

"None of these issues drive this decision," McConkie said.

 

Sorry, but I don't buy it.  I'm not going to turn this into a debate on same-sex marriage... but this is one of the consequences.

 

 

The church says it is adapting to adoption trends, due to changes in society.

 

Now THAT I believe, but not necessarily the statements that followed that one.

 

With the same-sex marriage issue having been recently ruled on in Utah (December 20th, 2013), this would seem to be a natural consequence of that decision.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Utah

 

This is a KSL article, not one from the Mormon Newsroom... so I get to doubt and speculate behind the REAL reasons for this decision.

[The Folk Prophet]

I would guess that it is a variable, but not necessarily the prime reason.

[Just_A_Guy]

NPR yesterday was saying that at its peak in 2002, LDS Family Services handled something like 600 adoptions; as opposed to between two and three hundred last year; also that it used to be that 15% of unwed mothers put their infants up for adoption and now the figure is closer to 1% or less.  I'm inclined to believe the Church/KSL when they maintain that (forgive the crass term) "market conditions" are the primary driving factor for this decision. 

 

But I have no doubt that ending the liability exposure--both for same-sex adoptions and for recent cases that have put Utah's very anti-father adoption code in the national spotlight, including a couple of cases where LDSFS was involved--is a very thick icing on the cake.

[skippy740]

I agree.  I don't think that LDSFS felt any outside pressure (from activists or whatever) to help same-sex couples adopt, or place children with same-sex couples... but I do believe that they want to follow the letter and spirit of the law.  

 

With the way that laws are changing, might as well voluntarily make this change, instead of any possible pressure down the line.

 

And with a lower "supply & demand"... it just makes all the more sense.

[Wingnut]

I heard about this a few weeks ago, actually.  I read about it on a personal blog or FB post or something from someone who was trying to adopt.  They had been informed that as of September (or October, maybe?) that LDSFS would no longer place babies with adoptive families, but would still facilitate placement from single moms, etc.  This was a friend of a friend, so no one that I know personally, but she also said that it was only affecting the Eastern US.

[pam]

Deseret News has an article that goes a little more in detail.

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865605313/LDS-Family-Services-shifts-from-adoption-agency-to-adoption-counseling.html?pg=1

[classylady]

I've read through the different newspaper articles and I'm having a hard time understanding this:

" McConkie said his organization expects the new model will enable more LDS families to adopt because it will broaden the options for prospective adoptive parents." 

How will this enable more families to adopt?  It seems if Family Services is going away from being an adoption agency and changing primarily to counseling, there would be fewer babies to adopt.  Can anyone shed some light on this?  Maybe I don't understand exactly what is happening.

[Just_A_Guy]

If they've only been able to get 2-300 birth mothers per year to place their children through LDSFS in the last few years, then I would guess that they figure they're exposing their client base of potential adoptive parents (the size of which they expect to remain more or less the same) to a much wider pool of children from which to adopt.

 

It'll be interesting to see if they still offer some sort of subsidy to the adoptive parents' costs, though.  Most outside agencies charge two or three times what LDSFS does.

[The Folk Prophet]

I've read through the different newspaper articles and I'm having a hard time understanding this:

" McConkie said his organization expects the new model will enable more LDS families to adopt because it will broaden the options for prospective adoptive parents." 

How will this enable more families to adopt?  It seems if Family Services is going away from being an adoption agency and changing primarily to counseling, there would be fewer babies to adopt.  Can any one shed some light on this?  Maybe I don't understand exactly what is happening.

 

My guess is that by working with other adoption agencies, but still working for LDS parents, and as JAG said, hopefully still subsidizing them, they'll have a much broader pool of children placed into LDS homes.

[classylady]

If they do use other adoption agencies, and still keep their client base, then yes, I can see how that could possibly mean more babies to adopt. That makes sense to me now.