China Ends Foreign Adoptions of its Children After Three Decades

On September 5, 2024, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs suddenly, and with little explanation, announced an end to the country's three-decade-old foreign adoption program. This has left the many families and waiting children who have been in limbo for many years, without a path forward for adoption. For three decades, China sent tens of thousands of young children overseas for adoption as it enforced a strict one-child policy that forced many families to abandon their babies. Now the government will no longer allow most foreign adoptions, a move that it said was in line with global trends. The ban raises questions for many of the hundreds of families in the United States who were in the process of adopting children from China and had heard earlier this week from adoption agencies that China was moving to bar international adoptions. The official confirmation came in the form of a brief comment by China’s foreign ministry on Thursday. Exceptions will be made only for foreigners adopting stepchildren and children of blood relatives in China.

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