The same day last week that Indiana adopted an abortion ban with limited exceptions, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed into law another measure the state’s Catholic conference says has the potential to help families.

Known as SB2, the legislation, which received broad bipartisan support, provides for a tax exemption for an adopted child, cuts the state’s tax on children’s diapers, caps the gas tax, and increases the adoption tax credit, the Indy Star reported.

It also creates a $45 million fund for a variety of family-related programs and initiatives, the Criterion, the newspaper of the Indianapolis Archdiocese, reported.

“The Catholic Church has a history of providing aid, comfort, and support for mothers and families,” said Angela Espada, executive director of the Indiana Catholic Conference, the Criterion reported.

“It hopes that the allotted $45 million will improve the lives of Hoosiers by supporting adoption, pregnancy planning, the health of pregnant women, postpartum mothers, and infants, along with supporting the needs of families with children less than 4 years old,” she said. “Additionally, there are funds to address the barriers to long-acting reversible contraception.”

Malcolm Sweeting

London

Clifford Chance has echoed the UK Government's landmark commitment to promote family and community-based care for all children, as announced at this week's Global Disability Summit, by joining forces with UBS Optimus Foundation and Allen & Overy to launch a new ‘Private Sector Pact'.

Led by international charity Hope & Homes for Children, a global strategic pro bono client of Clifford Chance, this new Pact sets out a pathway for change to ensure businesses can play a leading role in eliminating the growing problem of orphanages in the developing world.

As a signatory, Clifford Chance states that "we share the UK’s pledge to all children realising their right to family care - and that no child is left behind. We are committed to ensuring that our businesses do not, either directly or indirectly, contribute towards the institutionalisation of children; and to instead support family and community based services.”

Children from children homes in Czech Rep, Romania and Ukraine

Ukraine simplifies the procedure for adopting Ukrainian children through a "fast digital process", the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy and the Ministry of Digital Transformation announced on Wednesday, reports CNN, according to News.ro.

About 17,000 children in Ukraine are waiting to be adopted, said Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Kostiantin Ko?ielenko.

He mentioned that there are "several times fewer potential adoptive parents. One of the reasons is that the adoption procedure is very complicated".

The Ukrainian official emphasized that they will "implement a fast digital process", which will include only five minutes in which to submit the request for "initial consultation".

An initial adoption application can be submitted through the Diia portal starting Wednesday, and adoption applications will be able to be submitted online from August, Ko?ielenko added.

The Mark Gitenstein interview:- "[Putin] totally underestimated the unity between the two largest democratic systems in the world"

The US ambassador to the EU spoke to The Parliament Magazine about his close friendship with US President Joe Biden, his time as ambassador to Romania and the high level of collaboration between the EU and the US

“There has never been a time in history where there has been this level of collaboration between the European Union and the United States,” Mark Gitenstein, the United States ambassador to the European Union, tells The Parliament Magazine.

“I spent a lot of time talking to previous US ambassadors to the EU [and] other experts on the EU and the United States. And people say it’s never been more united.”

US President Joe Biden has made repairing American ties with Europe a key part of his foreign policy since entering the White House in early 2021, following the tempestuous years of the Donald Trump administration.

Nanna Nørby Hansen

53 people, via the group Danish Korean Rights Group, have today demanded from the South Korean government an investigation into the circumstances of adoptions from South Korea to Denmark in the 1970s and 1980s.

They do so on the basis of testimony that adoption information has been incorrect.

According to AP News , the group believes that some of the adoptions were corrupt and that the children were wrongly registered as orphans.

- The Korean state at that time stamped many papers saying that people were found on the street. If you do a little math, it would mean that from the 1970s and 1980s Seoul would be flooded with baskets of children lying around on the street, says Peter Møller, who is a lawyer and co-leader of Danish Korean Rights Group.

Dozens of South Koreans adopted by Danish parents decades ago have formally demanded the South Korean government investigate their adoptions, which they say were marred by widespread practices that falsified or obscured children’s origins

SEOUL, South Korea -- Dozens of South Koreans adopted by Danish parents decades ago have formally demanded the South Korean government investigate their adoptions, which they say were marred by widespread practices that falsified or obscured children’s origins.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Seoul has up to four months to decide whether to accept the application collectively filed Tuesday by the 53 adoptees. If it does, that could possibly trigger the most far-reaching inquiry into foreign adoptions in the country, which has never fully reconciled the child export frenzy engineered by past military governments that ruled from the 1960s to ’80s.

The application cites a broad range of grievances emphasizing how scores of children were carelessly or unnecessarily removed from their families amid loose government monitoring and a lack of due diligence.

Perhaps more crucially, the country’s special laws aimed at promoting adoptions practically allowed profit-driven agencies to manipulate records and bypass proper child relinquishment.

Marshall couple finds good solution for their desire in becoming parents

MARSHALL — Jason and Amber Swenson wanted a family after they first got married, so they turned to the adoption system.

More than a decade later they’re the proud parents of two adoptive sons, Leo and Brayden. They adopted Leo in 2013 and Brayden in 2019.

They said they turned to adoption after efforts to have children on their own did not result in pregnancy. They chose it rather than going through fertility specialists.

“It just came up in a conversation one day,” Amber said. “We’d both had thoughts about adoption and were very interested in it. Things went forward based on that.”

Savita was 12 when she was raped. A DNA test from her son, born out of her rape, helped the police track down the accused.

On the morning of August 11, Savita, 42, was getting ready to leave for work when she received a phone call from her lawyer.

He told her the Uttar Pradesh police had arrested two men for repeatedly raping Savita nearly 30 years ago. Savita had been 12 at the time.

“I felt relief, exhaustion, sadness, joy, anger – all at once,” Savita told Newslaundry. “I want to see both of them once and give them one slap. They ruined my life.”

As a result of the rapes, Savita had delivered a child when she was 13 years old. It was a DNA test that matched the child to one of the accused which led the police to finally make the arrests. The two men – Mohammad Razi, 48, and Naqi Hasan, 51 – are brothers.

If you were separated at birth through forced adoptions between 1950 and 1980, you may be eligible for compensation under a new redress scheme.

Background

For more than a year, Shine Lawyers has been lobbying for the removal of the statute of limitations for mothers whose newborn children were forcefully taken from them by the State between the 1950s and 1980s.

Unwed mothers were made to feel like they weren’t fit to be parents, and it was their fault this was happening to them. It has taken decades for many to find the courage to seek legal advice only to be told it's too late to sue.

The Victorian government has now responded to the?new recommendations by the Forced Adoption Inquiry?supporting ‘in principle’ the majority of the 56 recommendations. These recommendations included the removal of the significant injury threshold, statute of limitations, and the creation of redress for mothers and children affected.