“Put Up” on Platforms: A History of Twentieth Century Adoption Policy in the United StatesMICHELLE KAHANMcCormack School of Policy StudiesUniversity of Massachusetts BostonAdoption is closely intertwined with many issues that are central to public policy in this country—welfare and poverty, race and class, and gender. An analysis of the history of adoption shows how it has been shaped by the nation’s mores and demographics. In order to better understand this phenomenon, and its signifi cance to larger societal issues, this analysis reviews its history, focusing on four key periods in which this country’s adoption policy was shaped: the late Nineteenth Century’s ‘orphan trains’; the family preservation and Mothers’ Pensions of the Progressive Era; World War II through the 1950s, with secrecy and the beginnings of international adop-tion; and the 1970s-1990s, when reproductive controls were more obtainable, and relinquishing children became more uncommon. Keywords: abortion, adoption, birth control, child welfare, historyinternational adoption, Mothers’ Pensions, Operation Baby-lift, open adoption, orphan train, policy, secrecy, women’s rightsAdoption is closely intertwined with many issues that are central to public policy in this country—welfare and poverty, race and class, and gender. Recent studies show that adoption is so prevalent that it touches six in ten Americans (Pertman, 2000, p. 9). And yet, we often think of adoption as a private family matter, affecting a small sector of the population, pri-marily middle class white families. An analysis of the history of adoption shows how related policy has been shaped by the nation’s belief in the primacy of biological kinship, as well as Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, September 2006, Volume XXXIII, Number 35152 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfaredemographic, economic, and reproductive trends. Now is an opportune time to critically examine this past as we begin to confront the impacts of welfare reform, the growing diversity in our society, and increasingly successful attempts to limit re-productive rights. The history of adoption is weakly documented, mostly in a disconnected manner. Because adoption policy implementa-tion has been shrouded in secrecy for most of the century, com-prehensive histories of the topic are rare or incomplete at best. Since most case records had been sealed, historians have not had access to primary sources. Most researchers have focused on legal histories based on state laws and cases. Surprisingly, precise data describing fundamental adoption trends do not even exist. Since 1975, no national organization or government department has tracked this widespread social phenomenon. Data that are available include adoption by family members, estimated at one-third to one-half of adoptions at any given time, depending upon the period (Adamec and Pierce, 2000; Moe, 1998; Stolley, 1993). According to existing information, adoption began to increase considerably during the World War II era, rising from 16,000 annually in 1937, to 55,000 by 1945, and then growing tremendously over the next thirty years (to 142,000 in 1965). Peaking around 1970, at 173,000 it has since decreased in large part as a result of the sexual revolution and resulting reproductive technologies. The recent low point was at 118,000 in 1987, with 2001 estimates at 130,000. In order to better understand this phenomenon, and its sig-nifi cance to larger issues of race, class, and reproductive rights, this analysis reviews its history, focusing on four key periods in which this country’s adoption policy was shaped. As a whole, these times represent moments during which adoption policy patterns were set (the fi rst three), and traditions challenged and changed (the last period):1. The late Nineteenth Century, when the fi rst modern adoption law was passed and the ‘orphan train’ movement began as a way to control children from poor families.2. The Progressive Era, a time of child welfare reform, the rise of social work, beginnings of the family53preservation movement, early efforts to regulate adoption, and Mothers’ Pensions as a means to help worthy poor women take care of their children.3. The World War II period through the 1950s, during which the prevalence of adoption increased, as did the focus on secrecy in its implementation. American adoption of children of all races from other countries also began during this period.4. The 1970s-1990s, which, due to increased availability of birth control and the advent of legal abortion, were marked by decreases in the numbers of available healthy white infants for adoption, as well as the emergence of the adoption rights movement advocating for open processes. What the fi rst part of the Twenty-fi rst Century will bring remains to be seen; however the historical trends from these periods aid in predicting how policy in this area will be shaped in light of occurrences in the areas of class, race, and gender.Nineteenth Century AntecedentsThe legal history of modern adoption policy began in the late Nineteenth Century with passage of An Act to Provide for the Adoption of Children in Massachusetts in 1851. This groundbreaking law set several important precedents that are still in place today. First, it stated that the adoption had to be in the best interests of the child. Second, it put the judge in the position of evaluating the qualifi cations of potential adoptive parents; parents were required to have the “ability to furnish suitable nurture and education, appropriate to the child’s nature” (Modell, 1994, p. 23). The law also required written consent of the birthparents and dissolved all legal ties between them and their biological child. Most importantly, the Massachusetts Adoption Act, as it came to be known, began the process of required court approval for adoptions, and foretold that process to be carried out in state probate, rather than federal, courts. As Carp states, the law was critical to the future of adoption policy: “Instead of defi ning the parent-child relationship exclusively in terms of blood kinship, it en-couraged adoptive parents to build a family by assuming the “Put Up” on Platforms54 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfareresponsibility and emotional outlook of natural parents” (1998a, p. 12). Two years later, Pennsylvania passed a similar law, and over the next 25 years, 24 other