Dobbs v. Jackson
In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a ruling that the federal constitution does not grant rights to abortion and gave the states the power to regulate abortion laws.
Lead attorney’s of Grob & Eirich Law Firm in Colorado weigh in on how they think the decision could affect people in Colorado:
Our practice is unique in Colorado. We are the only firm that does what we do, focusing on adoption and assisted reproduction, but not practicing traditional family law. We work with adoption agencies that are religiously affiliated as well as agencies that have received recognition for their work with the LGBTQ community. Similarly, we work with a very diverse range of adoptive families. As the laws change, our role is to provide the best legal counsel we can to protect our clients’ interests in their family, regardless of how their family was formed. – Tim Eirich
My prediction is that we will see a significant uptick in infant adoptions. The waiting periods that we have now, around 24-30 months, is going to be reduced. Roughly 26 states will have significant restrictions to abortion resulting in more infants being born and being placed for adoption. Many adoption agencies in Colorado, and across the country, have had to cap the number of waiting families, particularly during the pandemic, because they didn’t have enough children being placed for adoption. With more children being carried to term and being placed for adoption, more Colorado families will successfully adopt, particularly from another state where there are considerable abortion limitations. Further, while there has been a massive increase in people using assisted reproduction to build their family, that may shift to infant adoption as it is much less expensive. – Seth Grob
As a law firm and advocate for adoption, surrogacy, and building families, our concern at Virginia Frank Law Firm is that adoption will be promoted as a solution to an unplanned pregnancy without an understanding of the complexities of adoption such as grief, loss, trauma, identity questions, and other challenges that impact the entire adoption community.
We see these difficulties even when adoption resources are available, the adoption is well-planned, and transparency and communication is well-received by all involved. With others, we fear the long-term consequences on children and family well-being when adoption is inadequately promoted, leading to unrealistic expectations, poorly prepared families, and children who will be traumatized and harmed.
Virginia Frank remains committed to providing high quality adoption and surrogacy legal services to all children and families and continuing to build a network of competent professionals. Given our new reality, we challenge elected officials and decision makers to support the accessibility and provision of services so that every family in every state has access to high quality adoption services.