Stop Joking About A Potential Coronavirus Baby Boom

The adoption industry will exploit this phenomenon and families will suffer

Photo by Daniel Gregoire on Unsplash

I get it. We are all holed up in our homes, stressed beyond belief, and uncertain about the future of our jobs, our social lives, and basically all of humanity. Humor is a needed relief in times like this.

There is a ‘joke’ floating around, however, that is no laughing matter. It plays on the idea that during disasters or crises we often see an uptick in births after these events have subsided. Memes such as these have been flooding my social media feeds lately:

Simple text suggesting that there will be a new generation marked by the Covid-19 crisis, the “Quaranteens”

At first glance, it does make one giggle. We are stuck at home with not much to do, so inevitably, as many have suggested, we will have a baby boom in the near future. My husband and I have even joked that we are glad he had a vasectomy last year.

What is not funny, however, is the way the adoption industry will seize on this baby boom, if it occurs.

First, it is worth noting that whether we will actually see an increased number of births following this virus outbreak is a matter of…