Gretchen Sisson, PhD, Sociologist and Researcher at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, UC San Francisco | Source | Researcher at  Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at University o...

PRAISE FOR RELINQUISHED

"Contributes to our national understanding of what reproductive justice really means."
—Gloria Steinem

"A compelling read, an important, thought-provoking book.”
—Arlie Hochschild, sociologist and author of Strangers In Their Own Land

“Meticulously and empathetically researched. The stories of these women are gripping, intimate, and powerful.”
—Anna Malaika Tubbs, sociologist and author of The Three Mothers

“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, co-author (with Loretta Ross), Reproductive Justice: An Introduction; and author, Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States

"A must-read."
—Melissa Guida-Richards, adoptee and author of What White Parents Should Know About Transracial Adoption

“Fills an important gap in the national conversation around adoption and pregnancy decision-making by centering the stories of those most impacted.”
—Cecile Richards, former president
of Planned Parenthood and author of Making Trouble

“One of the best books on pregnancy decision-making I have ever read.”
—Renee Bracey Sherman, founder of We Testify and reproductive justice advocate

“Powerful...will change the way you think about adoption.”
—Diana Greene Foster, demographer, author of The
Turnaway Study

"Brilliantly complicates the "happy home" adoption narrative advanced by both conservatives and liberals, and places it in contested political and social spaces where notions of motherhood, reproductive rights, and choice are shaped by race, poverty and gender."
—C. Nicole Mason,President, Institute for Women's Policy Research

“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, co-author of Notorious RBG

“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 a post-Roe United States.”
—Kathryn Joyce, author of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption

"Sisson’s powerful, poignant research into the aftermath of adoption is a must-read in this era of staggering income inequality, escalating abortion bans and a non-existent social safety net. Relinquished confronts the question too many choose to ignore: '"What do ‘choice’ and ‘agency’ really mean, when the system has already whittled away all your options?'"
—Jessica Bruder, author of Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century and Snowden’s Box