All-Options book event: Relinquished

All-Options invites you to a conversation with sociologist and researcher Gretchen Sisson about her new book, Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood.

In the movement for reproductive health, rights, and justice, issues like abortion, pregnancy prevention, and parenting are often at the center of the discussion, with far less attention and awareness given to the complexities of adoption.

Especially in this post-Roe landscape, adoption is frequently positioned as an alternative to abortion and a way to build bridges across the "pro-choice/pro-life" divide. Yet there is so much about adoption that most people don't really understand. How do people come to consider placing a child for adoption, and how does it impact them? What is the history of adoption, and what do current private adoption practices look like in the United States? What does adoption practice reveal about our values around supporting parents and families?

The book Relinquished is the culmination of a decade of research and interviews that delve into these very questions. Join author Gretchen Sisson and All-Options Board Vice-President Susan Dusza Guerra Leksander for a Zoom conversation about Relinquished, the politics of private adoption, and the lived experiences of parents who have relinquished an infant.

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

7 to 8:30 PM Eastern, 4 to 5:30 PM Pacific

Zoom link provided upon registration

About Gretchen Sisson

Gretchen Sisson, PhD, is a sociologist who studies abortion and adoption in the United States. She is a researcher at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, part of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

Gretchen's book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood was published by St. Martin’s Press in February 2024. Her studies on adoption include hundreds of in-depth interviews with women who have relinquished infants for domestic adoption over the past 60 years, with a particular focus on women who have relinquished since Roe v. Wade.

Her research examining adoption decision-making after abortion denial (as part of The Turnaway Study) was cited in the Supreme Court’s dissent in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health from Justices Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor. In response to the oral arguments and decision in Dobbs, she authored pieces in the Washington Post, The Nation, and the Washington Post (again). Gretchen’s research has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and Consider This, as well as in New York Magazine, VOX, and other outlets.

Gretchen is represented by McKinnon Literary. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, three children, and their little free library. She is a native of Pennsylvania, and an alumna of Amherst College and Boston College.

About Susan Dusza Guerra Leksander

Susan Dusza Guerra Leksander, LMFT, is a Latina first/birth mother, a transracial adoptee, and a licensed psychotherapist who has specialized extensively in adoption and foster care issues since 2008.

Susan serves as the Vice President of the All-Options board of directors, and is the Agency and Clinical Director at Pact, an Adoption Alliance, a non-profit organization whose mission is to serve adopted children of color. Previous professional experiences include counseling former foster youth with significant mental health needs in a Housing First program, supervising Family Preservation services to reduce the need for child welfare removals, and leading therapeutic retreats for first/birth parents.

Susan previously served as Board President of MPower Alliance, and was a founding member of the Leadership Team of the Adoption Museum Project. Raised in the Chicago burbs, she now lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children.