WASHINGTON — The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) has urged the U.S. government to intercede for the American families and Chinese orphans caught in limbo by the end of China’s international adoption program.

In an Oct. 24th letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, ERLC President Brent Leatherwood asked Blinken to advocate at the highest level for the adoptions to be completed, while also working for the wellbeing of some 100,000 orphans in China who’ve lost a potential lifeline.

“While we are concerned about the fate of all of these children in China, we urge you to prioritize at the highest level a resolution for the 300 American families previously matched with children in China,” Leatherwood wrote Blinken, copying President Joe Biden, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng.

“It is essential for the State Department to advocate for these families, ensuring they have a pathway to complete their adoptions and provide permanent homes for the children they have lovingly pursued for many years,” Leatherwood wrote. “We encourage the State Department to leverage all channels to bring about a successful conclusion that respects the needs of American families and children in China.

“High-level engagement is vital in navigating this complex issue and finding a way forward that aligns with our shared commitment to protecting vulnerable children.”

Not only were the parents heavily invested in the adoption process, many of them having spent time with the children and established loving parental relationships with them, Leatherwood stressed, but the children have also developed strong hopes of entering secure family units.

“This change not only harms American families who have invested so much,” he wrote, “but it brings immeasurable emotional harm to these already vulnerable children, who still believe that someone is coming for them. Instead, they are being forcibly abandoned.”

Hannah Daniel, ERLC director of public policy, said caring for orphans is a key concern of the Southern Baptist entity.

“For Southern Baptists, caring for orphans is not just a duty but a reflection of our faith and commitment to embody the Gospel’s message of redemption and love,” Daniel told Baptist Press. “Every child is created in God’s image and deserves the opportunity to thrive in a nurturing environment. We call on the State Department to advocate tirelessly for these families and the precious children waiting for them, ensuring their needs are not overlooked in the face of this suspension.”

Southern Baptists have widely affirmed in statements, including the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and various resolutions, the value of children and the Convention’s commitment to their care.

“We see adoption as a tangible display of the Gospel, a picture of our adoption into the Kingdom of God,” Leatherwood told Blinken. “The Southern Baptist Convention has a longstanding commitment to caring for vulnerable children, and we recognize the value of providing loving, Christ-centered homes to children who do not have one.”

Along with the letter, ERLC released an explainer that presents China’s suspension of international adoptions as “a concerning disregard for the welfare of these children” in line with China’s control of individual rights. Many of the children in the adoption process suffer physical or mental disabilities, ERLC said.

Lifeline Children’s Services, the largest evangelical adoption organization in the U.S, previously told Baptist Press how the end of the program disrupted the lives of the 48 families the agency served who are awaiting children from China.

“They were definitely in shock,” Karla Thrasher, Lifeline’s senior director of international adoptions, said when the program ended. “Several of these families had actually met their children and spent time with them through a program that we have where we host children here in the United States. So several of these children had been a part of that hosting program where they had come to the U.S., actually spent time in the family’s home. So these families knew these children.”

China was a robust country for adoptions by U.S. parents in the 30 years it remained a destination, with more than 80,000 children adopted by American families, according to U.S. Department of State adoption statistics.

Previously China suspended adoptions during the COVID pandemic, making fiscal 2020 the last robust year for the program, when 202 U.S. adoptions were finalized there, according to the U.S. State Department’s Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption. Only 16 U.S. adoptions from China were finalized in 2023, the State Department reported.

This article has been republished with permission from Baptist Press.

Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.