Russian adoption ban

The lower house of the Russian Duma (parliament) has just passed a ban on adoptions by Americans by a huge margin.   It will now be up for vote in the upper house, and then a signature from President Putin.  According to pre-existing treaties between the 2 countries, such a ban could not go into effect for one year after passage, but even so, it would spell doom for the thousands of children who would remain in orphanages and institutions instead of finding loving families.

As reported here, 70% of all adoptions in Russia are domestic (i.e. by Russian families).  However, most (but not all) of these are of healthier, younger children.  Older children, as well as children with disabilities or chronic illnesses, if they are adopted at all, are generally adopted internationally, by American or European families.

One issue is that there have been various documented cases of abuse and/or neglect of these adopted children, including 19 well-publicized deaths in the past 10 years.  However, to put this number into perspective, over 1000 domestically-adopted Russian children have died in a similar time frame.

Here are some of my previous posts about Russian orphans.  These kids are desperately in need of families to love them and give them the medical and educational opportunities that will enable them to live full lives.

Please sign this online petition to appeal to Putin to VETO this ban, so that these children can find families!