“Sociologist Sisson’s comprehensive and harrowing debut draws on a decade of interviews and archival research to argue that America’s current discourse around adoption belies its insidious history of targeting vulnerable mothers and children. As Sisson points out, adoption remains one of the few bipartisan areas of political agreement: the left supports it as a means of building chosen families, while the right views it as a means of maintaining the nuclear family and curtailing abortion rates. Yet the reality, Sisson argues, is that the adoption industry has historically been predicated on state-sanctioned family separation. She traces America’s long history of child removal, including the sale of children born into slavery, the forced assimilation of Native American children, and the conscription as farm laborers of children born to poor white mothers in the 19th century. She pinpoints the emergence of the modern adoption industry in the post-WWII ‘baby scoop’ era, when unmarried women were coerced into relinquishing their children, and shows that today’s private adoption industry continues in the tradition of separating disadvantaged families. Throughout, Sisson foregrounds the stories of mothers who gave up their children for adoption, juxtaposing their personal monologues with sociological and historical research that highlights broader patterns in their testimonies. The result is a devastating and urgent condemnation of America’s adoption industry.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“These fascinating and often heartrending accounts are both varied and echoing, resoundingly so. Relinquishing mothers come to their decision from both a dearth of options and an abundance of love—with some subjects, out of their trauma, offering well-reasoned improvements to the system. This isn't an all-sides view and doesn't claim to be, as Sisson includes the work of adoption abolition groups and doesn't propose alternatives to adoption as it exists for people trying to build much-desired families. Rather, it is a crucial piece in understanding reproductive justice and the unequal ways we create and care for families in this country.”

Booklist

“Adoption is often spoken of as an alternative to abortion, but is little examined for all its realities. Relinquished takes it on, and in so doing, contributes to our national understanding of what reproductive justice really means.”

Gloria Steinem

“Relinquished offers a much-needed examination of what reproductive choice truly means when women's options are denied by policymakers and constrained by circumstances of inequity. Dr. Sisson's compelling work fills an important gap in the national conversation around adoption and pregnancy decision-making by centering the stories of those most impacted.”

Cecile Richards, Make Trouble & Former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America

“In Relinquished, Sisson offers us a set of rich, sharply illuminating and very personal adoption stories along with her own equally powerful context and analysis. This book shows us the harmful inadequacies of the position, championed by Justices Alito and Coney Barrett in the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, that adoption is the best, moral alternative.

Rickie Solinger, Reproductive Justice: An Introduction & Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the U.S.

“The US has 19,000 adoptions a year and there is currently a call to greatly increase that number. In this welcome book, Sisson takes us carefully, empathically and thoughtfully into the circumstances and feelings of birth mothers. A compelling read, an important, thought-provoking book.”

Arlie Hochschild, Second Shift & Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

“As jurists and politicians push adoption as an alternative to abortion, Gretchen Sisson’s compelling, compassionate book is timely and essential reading. By putting birth parents at the center, Relinquished complicates the rosy popular narratives of adoption, liberal and conservative alike. But it is also a profoundly human and moving account of real people's lives, told with sensitivity and grace.”

Irin Carmon, Notorious RBG

“Meticulously and empathetically researched, Relinquished offers a close examination of motherhood in the United States by analyzing who is able to enjoy the privilege of mothering on their terms, who our society deems worthy of investment, as well as who continues to be excluded and marginalized. The stories of these women are gripping, intimate, and powerful.”

Anna Malaika Tubbs, The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, & James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

“Relinquished is searing and powerful in its ability to artfully weave together the post-Dobbs reckoning for women and families, and the complicated history of poverty, race and adoption in the U.S.”

C. Nicole Mason, Bright Born: A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America & President of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research

"As an adoptee, I am used to the true nuance of adoption history being shrouded in secrets. Sisson peels back the fallacy of unwanted babies and lays bare a painful, yet, necessary truth – there is much more to relinquishment than what society is often told to believe. With grace, and sensitivity, she advocates for birth parents and adoptees by giving a voice to those who society would much rather forget about in their fight to insist that adoption is the simple solution to abortion that some wish it to be. This is a must-read for everyone who needs a deeper understanding of the complexities of reproductive justice in our country."

Melissa Guida-Richards, What White Parents Should Know About Transracial Adoption

“This powerful book will change the way you think about adoption. The clear arguments and the compelling stories bring to light the often hidden side of adoption – the experiences of birth mothers in the years and decades after they relinquished their children.”

Diana Greene Foster, The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having – or Being Denied – an Abortion

“If I could, I’d make every judge and lawmaker in the country read this book. Gretchen Sisson’s Relinquished fills a critical hole in adoption scholarship—covering the years closest to present day—making clear that the ethical problems that have long plagued the industry aren’t just a matter of history. This is a vitally important book for all who care about reproductive justice and freedom, and a sorely needed corrective for anyone who thinks adoption is the solution to the destruction of reproductive choice.”

Kathryn Joyce, The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption

“Anchored in the stories of women who relinquished their children through adoption, Sisson’s research makes the case for us to reinvestigate what we think about adoption, who is impacted, and how their lives actually turned out. Rarely do we hear the stories of the birth parents behind adoption with such clarity, and without reductive political opinions overlayed. Sisson’s writing is incisive and thoughtful, drawing the reader into the data as deeply as she does the history and narrative. Relinquished urgently illustrates why we need true reproductive justice for all.”

Renee Bracey Sherman, Founder of We Testify