Making motherhood accessible for all requires moving away from punitive models—including foster care—that criminalize poverty.
The “birth mother” has become a somewhat mythical creature in the United States. Some of the earliest birth mothers were enslaved Black women whose children were forcibly taken and sold to other plantations. At the same time, Native American mothers also became birth mothers as their children were involuntarily rounded up and sent to boarding schools to be assimilated into white American culture.
In the decades since, the birth mother has become a paradox. According to mainstream media depictions, she is both brave and lazy, selfless and selfish, loving and careless, a heroine and a villain. She is a drug-addicted, abusive lay-about who makes the ultimate sacrifice–relinquishing her child to give them a better life.
And when her children are adopted into their “forever home,” she…