With the United States now in a post-Roe v. Wade era, many people will give birth to children they cannot or choose not to care for. So, what does this mean for the already over-burdened foster care system?
While recent data by the federal Children’s Bureau of Administration of Children and Families showed the number of children in foster care had been decreasing, case workers and advocates are bracing for a turnaround after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and many states enacted trigger laws banning abortion.
Mariah Craven is with the National Foster Youth Institute.
“If you force people to have children that they may not want, the sort of logical extension of that is that the child could end up in foster care. And even, sometimes children are wanted, but the reality is that people can't always afford them at that moment in their life and a significant number of children end up in foster care due to poverty-related issues. So, if we know that the majority of women who seek abortions do so for financial reasons, it just stands to reason that the issues that put young children and young adults into foster care are just going to be exacerbated.”
Advocates like Craven worry that red states that quickly moved to ban abortion are not prepared to handle the increased demand in their child welfare systems.
“The people who are celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade and saying, ‘We worked so long and so hard for this,’ what they weren't working on was putting things in place to make it possible or easier for people to have families. And that's what is so frustrating and frightening about all of this. Is that this is a system that was strained to begin with and if we're not going to bother to give women and people who can get pregnant access to health care or raise their wages or give them affordable childcare, then what do we expect them to do?”
A November 2021 report by the federal Administration for Children and Families found there were about 427,000 children in foster care, with more than 117,000 children waiting for placement into a home. Comparatively, New York has about 16,000 with 700 waiting for placement.
In Massachusetts, there are about 10,000 children in foster care with about 650 children in group homes. Vermont has about 1,000 children in foster care and about 400 children in group homes. And Connecticut has about 4,000 children in placement and about 275 children in group homes.
Peter Gannon, president and CEO of the United Way of the Greater Capital Region, says they have introduced a new campaign to raise awareness of the need for new foster families. The organization’s 2-1-1 helpline allows people to learn about becoming a foster parent.
“We looked at this ongoing crisis that we have here in New York State with (the) foster care system. We have a great partner at Berkshire (United Way and) we did some visibility activities with them during Foster Care Awareness month in May.”
Nicole Wood is a foster parent in Schenectady. Although she expects fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision, she believes the COVID-19 pandemic was even more devastating to the system.
“Whether or not the Supreme Court decision affects this - I'm sure down the road it will – but, right now, I'm not sure how much more dire the crisis could get. And I'm not talking about just teens that we can't find homes for. I'm talking about 2-year-olds, 5-year-olds, a sibling group of really sweet 7- and 9-year-olds and there are no homes. So it's bad. It's dire.”
