The Mormon church pushed my wife to give up her new born son (out of wedlock teenager). An adoption was already set up with a Mormon two parent family. She said no. She left her boyfriend, left her small Utah town, left the Mormon church, then had her baby and raised him on her own. He’s now 40 with his own family (I’m his step dad). Oh and she/we raised the kids with zero religion.

72 hours after childbirth, you are so emotionally AND physically vulnerable. Asking a woman who just gave birth to make that decision is cruel and should be illegal.

I truly can’t imagine a more vulnerable set of populations than infants and impoverished, disenfranchised young women 🥺

I was born into a Mormon household with a pedo for a biological father. When the state stepped in to remove me from their home (and put him in prison), my Mormon parents tried everything to have me be adopted by other Mormons and even begged my adoptive parents to raise me Mormon. Fortunately they refused to do so and the rest of my upbringing was in a safe and loving home.

I’m a member of the Navajo Nation.  I know soooooo many Navajo families that were targeted by the LDS church to hand over their kids.

I was a pregnant teen in the Mormon church and they tried to pressure me to give up the baby. The dad and I had a plan and we didn’t want to give her up. We ended up getting married and working our asses off to provide for her. We made it through. I am so grateful that we didn’t give into the pressure.

I grew up in a hometown with a bunch of Mormons. Several families went overseas to adopt their children. Their community praised them for being “angels” and not only “saving” a child but “bringing that child to God”, “saving their immortal soul” blah blah blah. UGH. I always felt so bad for those children. They were kids of color, in a community that says that white skin means you were good in the pre-life! Both kids were (of course) indoctrinated in the Mormon religion. I hope they are doing ok.

It’s a really good point that adoption continues to effect people decades after the adoption itself. My grandmother gave a baby up for adoption in 1952. In 2006, my biological aunt found us through research and contacted my mom (her biological sister.) My grandmother was still alive but could not bring herself to meet my biological aunt because she said giving her up was one of the worst days of her life, and she couldn’t relive it even though she did it to save my bio aunt’s life. It’s a generational trauma even if it’s done with the best of intentions from all parties. When you add in an agency that is not acting with the best of intentions, it’s even more devastating.

My former classmate's mom is a Navajo woman from New Mexico who was placed into a white Mormon family in Utah in the 80s as part of the LDS Indian Placement Program. She had family but they were poor and lived rurally and this program was seen as a way to give her access to education. She was able to leave Utah and reunite with her family and her Navajo culture as an adult, but the stories my classmate told about her life were very sad. She was treated like a 2nd class child in the family and constantly shamed for her dark skin and indigenous heritage. She was forced to do chores for the other children. It's like a real life Cinderella story.

My dad was a bishop for years. I remember us “hosting” a young mother at our house, and we would help babysit. This lasted a few weeks, then years later we “hosted” her again when she had another new baby. I found out later, we were essentially fellowshipping her all while my parents were encouraging her to give her children up for adoption.
I think about her and her children often 💔 I hope she found the actual help she needed

this is unrelated but i love how her live streams feel like a professor teaching and online class you can see her english teacher coming out

WAIT is this why BYU TV has that weird reality competition show where they connect people to their biological relatives?? Is this why they have such a large supply of adopted people for that show???

My oldest brother was adopted out through them. They basically stole my mother son. He was born at a house on the livingroom floor. My mom only saw the top of his head. My grandma signed the adoption  papers. He was taken to one of the sisters (members) homes that had just had a daughter and she breastfeed him. This has haunted our family forever. We celebrate his birthday every year.

"This baby was meant to be mine and God aligned the stars to get the baby back to me." This sounds outrageous and horrific - something a kidnapper might say, a delusional one at that. All the worse if it's a quiet part of the practices, if not the official doctrine.

A neighbor’s daughter had church officials visit every day for 4 months   She finally agreed to place the baby for adoption eventually committed suicide because she could not stand the fact she relented.

I was adopted through LDS Family Services in the 70's. In the early 90's I met both of my biological parents when my biological Father hired a private investigator to find me! The story of why and how they were pressured to give me up is heartbreaking and was nothing like the lie that LDSFS told my adopting parents!!

My mom was a secretary for LDS Family Services and she said the legalization of gay marriage was the reason for closing the adoption agency down. They knew it would be a legal battle/PR disaster, so they just got rid of it entirely.

If "God" had always planned for a baby to be adopted by a Mormon couple, then "God" also planned for the unwed woman to have sex. So sex before marriage is sanctioned by "God".

It’s SO maddening because there’s no way for young/single mothers to do the “right” thing. Especially the judgment of government assistance! My religion said women should give up the baby for adoption but then don’t provide assistance necessary for pregnancy and birth. Other people said “don’t abort the baby like a monster, just give it up for adoption” - “just”?? As if that decision doesn’t affect the birth parent AND the baby for the rest of their lives? I immigrated to Korea which has an awful history of kidnapping/illegally adopting out children and the repercussions are endless.

As an adoptive mom (not LDS), I would like to clear away a common myth. Generally, children placed for adoption are not unwanted. Many, if not most, parents who decide to place their child for adoption absolutely want their child and love their child. These parents make a very painful decision that has nothing to do with wanting their child. They realize that they cannot give their child the home that the child needs and hope that their child will be adopted into a loving, stable home.