Informing Choice: The Role of Adoption in Women’s Pregnancy Decision-Making

Abstract

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the authors of this Article offer a practical, collaborative response to a seemingly intractable, divisive issue. Elizabeth R. Kirk and Ryan Hanlon draw on their academic expertise in law and social science, respectively, to address the paradox of the general esteem for the institution of adoption alongside the rarity with which adoption is chosen. In this Article, they examine social science data and literature on women’s pregnancy decision-making in order to explain the need for laws and policies that promote informed choice. They introduce never-before published survey data and analysis from the largest study on birth mothers’ decision-making and coercion experiences, and aggregate and analyze existing social science studies of pregnancy decision-making regarding adoption. Finally, they conducted a comprehensive 50-state survey of abortion-specific informed consent laws and propose a reform, consistent with the principles of autonomy and self-determination, recommending that states require disclosure of information about adoption so that women receive accurate and sufficient information in order to make a fully informed free decision.

Keywords: abortion, adoption, informed consent, pregnancy