Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood By Gretchen Sisson

"Relinquished" is a powerful study of adoption in the age of Roe, revealing the grief of American mothers for whom the choice to parent was never real. Adoption has been viewed as a beloved institution for building families and a common ground in the abortion debate. However, little attention has been paid to the lives of mothers who relinquish infants for private adoption. "Relinquished" reveals adoption as a path of constrained choice for those for whom abortion is inaccessible or parenthood is untenable. The stories of relinquishing mothers highlight our country's refusal to care for families at the most basic level and instead embrace an individual, private solution to a large-scale social problem.

With the recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization revoking abortion protections, adoption is increasingly being revealed as an institution devoted to separating families and policing parenthood under the guise of feel-good family-building. "Relinquished" is rooted in a long-term study and features the in-depth testimonies of American mothers who placed their children for domestic adoption. Their voices are powerful and heartrending, and they deserve to be heard.