President Donald Trump issued an executive order Wednesday that seeks to strengthen the nation’s child welfare system in order to reduce the need for vulnerable children to be placed in foster care and encourage permanent adoptions.
“The best foster care system is one that is not needed in the first place,” the president said in his executive order, but added that “challenges remain” and explained:
Too many young people who are in our foster care system wait years before finding the permanency of family. More than 400,000 children are currently in foster care. Of those, more than 124,000 children are waiting for adoption, with nearly 6 out of 10 (58.4 percent) having already become legally eligible for adoption.
More than 50 percent of the children waiting for adoption have been in foster care — without the security and constancy of a permanent family — for 2 years or more. The need for stability and timely permanency is particularly acute for children 9 years and older, children in sibling groups, and those with intellectual or physical disabilities.
Trump continued his executive order will promote “partnerships” between state and local child welfare agencies and private organizations, including faith-based groups.
The order also seeks to provide support for those who offer to be foster and adoptive parents, and to reduce the existing “bureaucratic barriers” that present obstacles to children obtaining the help they need.
The president said:
It is the goal of the United States to promote a child welfare system that reduces the need to place children into foster care; achieves safe permanency for those children who must come into foster care, and does so more quickly and more effectively; places appropriate focus on children who are waiting for adoption, especially those who are 9 years and older, are in sibling groups, or have disabilities; and decreases the proportion of young adults who age out of the foster care system.
As UPI reported, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the president’s executive order “demonstrates how his administration has prioritized placing each of America’s foster kids with the loving, permanent family they deserve.”
“Since the president took office, we have focused on promoting adoption unlike any previous administration, and we’ve begun to see results,” he added.
Many pro-life organizations are praising the executive order that, they say, demonstrates the Trump administration’s true commitment to providing safety and family stability to vulnerable children who might have been aborted, including those with disabilities.
Allan Parker, president of The Justice Foundation, said, “To be truly pro-life, we must work to ensure the protection and well-being of every child in America at all stages of development.”
He added:
For this reason, the Justice Foundation promotes Safe Haven laws and adoption as an important step toward ending the crime against humanity known as abortion.
Adoptive parents are indeed heroes. If we are pro-life, we must remove unnecessary barriers for the millions of Americans waiting to build families of their own through adoption. Today, Safe Haven laws are present in all 50 states. The pro-life movement should work to ensure everyone knows about this superior alternative to abortion. As a solution that protects both mother and child while offering the miracle of life to those who want it, adoption is truly the most loving option.
Similarly, Students for Life of America online editor Brenna Lewis wrote, “Improving our nation’s foster care system is one of many ways to usher in a post-Roe America.”
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