Newsweek explains that Americans are adopting far fewer children from other countries. International adoptions are down a whopping 10 percent just in the last year, down for the fourth straight year.
What's going on? It is not that Americans don't want to adopt, it is instead that several countries are making it more difficult:
Experts say the downward trend is likely to continue as countries such as Russia, Guatemala and China, which in recent years had been among the largest providers of orphans for adoption, have either dialed back their programs or ended them entirely. "It's not that American interest has diminished at all, or that there are fewer kids who need homes," says Chuck Johnson of the National Council for Adoption. "The declines are directly the result of bureaucratic or political issues."
Newsweek says there are other factors:
China says increased prosperity in the country means fewer abandoned children. Russia, Ukraine and South Korea, all facing declining birthrates, are encouraging domestic adoption and making fewer children available to foreigners.
