INVISIBLE

I once lectured an anti-abortion activist I was interviewing after he told me he got involved because he and his wife "couldn't find a baby" to adopt. I told him he was in it for self-interest and not reasons of faith, or he would have noticed all the black infants waiting for adoption:

The U.S. State Department says the number of couples adopting American babies from other countries has more than doubled over the last decade. At the same time some Americans don't adopt babies from other countries, saying there's a lack of babies up for adoption in the United States. But in reality, there are plenty of American babies who need a home. Most of them are African-American.

Allison Drake and Earl Stroud wanted to adopt a child. For a White baby, they would have had to wait for several years. Allison and Earl live in Ottawa, Canada. They did not have to wait to adopt Ethan, who is from Chicago, Illinois, where more than 80 percent of babies available for adoption are Black.

Increasingly, Black children are finding homes in Germany, France and especially Canada, which puzzles Earl Stroud. "I just don't understand why American couples go to China and Romania and places like that, when they have kids in their own backyard," says Mr. Stroud.

Michelle Hughes, an adoption attorney, says the main reason is racism. "And parents will actually say, 'I'll take anything but an Africa-American child'," says Ms. Hughes.

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