Hillary Clinton’s Involvement and Views on Adoption Over Her Political Career

 

Hillary Clinton’s public career has included a long-standing focus on children, families, and child welfare. While adoption has not always been the central focus of her public platform, her record includes several connections to foster care, adoption policy, and efforts to support permanent homes for children. Here is what we know:

 

Her Political Career

 

According to On the Issues, it can be said that Hillary dedicated much of her career to being an effective advocate for parents and children. From her first job out of law school at the Children’s Defense Fund to her time devoted to childcare as the First Lady of Arkansas to appointing the first-ever special adviser on international children’s issues as Secretary of State, helping children has been at the center of Hillary’s public life.

 

Children’s Defense Fund

 

In an article for Adoption.com, Denalee Chapman wrote about Hillary Clinton’s work with the Children’s Defense Fund, saying: “The organization, whose aim is to end child poverty, focuses on giving every child a ‘healthy start, a head start, a fair start, a safe start, and a moral start in life and a successful passage into adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.’”

 

Adoption and Safe Families Act

 

Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 19, 1997, the act was one that the Washington Post deemed “the most significant change in federal child-protection policy in almost two decades.” Discussed in an article by Ann F. Lewis, it becomes apparent that, partnered with Republican Minority Whip Tom Delay of Texas and business leader Dave Thomas of Wendy’s, she worked to raise awareness at the White House while also building support for legislation that would encourage adoptions, provide more aid for foster families, and help foster children find permanent, safe, loving homes.

 

 

Federal Adoption Assistance Program

 

A program legislated by the Adoption and Safe Families Act; the Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) truly proved to provide incredible support and service for adoptive families, which increased foster adoptions by 64 percent between 1997 and 2002. Interestingly too, an article for the Daily Kos says that an additional benefit to the AAP was that it expanded both adoptions and federal assistance in general to a wider population of Americans including single adults, lesbians, and gay men, and even single elderly people – people who are usually left out of family-focused agenda.

 

Foster Care Independence Act of 1999

 

Close on the heels of the Adoption and Safe Families Act, the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 was a continuation, or a correction, of the former. It was intended to ease the transition into adulthood for foster children who did not get adopted and aged out of the system.

 

Some commentators have argues that Clinton’s work helped bring attention to adoption and foster care issues. “The facts are that without Hillary then, or now, there would be no AAP and that’s of tangible importance to millions of kids, parents, and social workers and everyone involved with adoptions.” So it’s true. Complicated, but true. Where some things might be muddled, the fact that Hillary Clinton cares about America’s children – adopted, in the foster care system, or with biological parents – is on the verge of indisputable.

 

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