WINNER, THE 2026 ADELE CLARK BOOK AWARD FINALIST, NONFICTION, NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS, 2024 FINALIST, 2024 GODDARD RIVERSIDE STEPHAN RUSSO BOOK PRIZE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE "Essential reading." ―NPR “Books We Love” “Dares to imagine a different world where Americans treat adoption like the justice issue it is.” ― Washington Post “Impressively reported…[Sisson] uses her deep well of knowledge to make the case that adoption is no solution for Americans’ reduced access to abortion.” ― San Francisco Chronicle A powerful decade-long study of adoption in the age of Roe, revealing the grief of the American mothers for whom the choice to parent was never real Adoption has always been viewed as a beloved institution for building families, as well as a mutually agreeable common ground in the abortion debate, but little attention has been paid to the lives of mothers who relinquish infants for private adoption. Relinquished reveals adoption to be a path of constrained choice for those for whom abortion is inaccessible, or for whom parenthood is untenable. The stories of relinquishing mothers are stories about our country's refusal to care for families at the most basic level, and to instead embrace an individual, private solution to a large-scale, social problem. With the recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization revoking abortion protections, we are in a political moment in which adoption is, increasingly, being revealed as an institution devoted to separating families and policing parenthood under the guise of feel-good family-building. Rooted in a long-term study, Relinquished features the in-depth testimonies of American mothers who placed their children for domestic adoption. The voices of these women are powerful and heartrending; they deserve to be heard. Winner of the 2025 William Goode Book Award at the Family Section of the American Sociological Association “A timely book in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.” ― O ne of the best nonfiction books of 2024, Paste Magazine "A devastating and urgent condemnation of America’s adoption industry." ― Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Provocative, urgent..." ― Kirkus "Provocative, in-depth, and scholarly. For readers interested in the history of adoption." ― Library Journal “[A] crucial piece in understanding reproductive justice and the unequal ways we create and care for families in this country.” – Booklist "Deftly wrangles with what can feel like conflicting truths, especially those that have endeared adoption to liberals...." ― Jezebel "Sisson uses personal accounts to uncover the experience of American mothers who place their children for adoption. In the aftermath of Dobbs and the Supreme Court’s negation of abortion rights, Sisson’s studies are even more relevant." ― Alta "In 'Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and Privilege of American Motherhood,' Sisson, now a sociologist argues that we've been fed a myth about adoption, one that centers adoptive parents and ignores the lasting trauma experienced by birth mothers (and often, adopted people as well)." ― The Boston Globe "Contributes to our national understanding of what reproductive justice really means." ― Gloria Steinem “As American women lose reproductive rights long thought sacred, Relinquished is a forceful reminder of who wins and who loses in the making of the modern American family.” ― Washington Independent Review of Books "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 Th