There was a time when U.S. parents who abandoned their children were a rarity and fit a narrow profile. Due to overwhelming cultural or social pressures, their unplanned pregnancy put them at significant risk, so they felt they had no choice but to hide the pregnancy, give birth alone and abandon the infant.
Now, due to the rollback of Roe v. Wade amid limited access to contraception, the profile of at-risk parents is much broader. People facing these circumstances are no longer extreme outliers but are more likely to fit the profile of an average person of reproductive age from any state where abortion is now illegal or highly restricted.
The legal landscape is shifting in alarming ways — which traumatizes birth parents and children alike through unwanted births, while feeding a profitable adoption system.
