It’s been nearly three years since the Dobbs decision, which the Supreme Court used to strip women of the right to control our own bodies. In that decision—and frequently presented across the ideological spectrum as an alternative to abortion—adoption has been at the forefront of the discussion. But is adoption as benevolent and empowering as it is presented to be?

Our guest today argues that it is not—and she’s got compelling evidence to back that up. Dr. Gretchen Sisson is a researcher at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Her book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and much more acclaim.