China is ending its international adoption program, leaving hundreds of American families with pending applications in limbo. Since the early 90s, China has sent thousands of children overseas for adoption with about half of them coming to the United States.
The influx stemmed from China’s one-child policy, which forced many families to abandon babies – especially girls or those with disabilities.
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Over the last three decades, however, China’s birth rate dropped, and international adoptions declined to the point where they’ve been mostly on hold since the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the Chinese government is officially ending the program.
The move comes as the country faces too few births and the social preference for male children dwindles.
China has now canceled all pending adoptions for U.S. families except those that have already been issued travel authorizations. Moving forward, China will allow foreigners to adopt only the children or stepchildren of their blood relatives in China.
U.S. families have adopted more than 82,000 children from China – the most from any country.
A U.S. consulate issued 16 visas for adoptions from China between October 2022 and September 2023 after they were put on hold because of the pandemic. It’s not clear if any more visas have been issued since then.
