Adoptions in Australia are being rejected based on the Body Mass Index

AUSTRALIAN adoptions are being rejected due to an outdated method of measuring body fat, among other unreasonable hurdles.

EXCLUSIVE

THEY’RE desperate to give Australian children a forever home, but prospective adoptive parents are being turned away because they’re “too fat”, according a new report.

News Corp Australia can today reveal the Adopt Change ‘Barriers to Adoption’ research which uncovers a shocking picture of delays and unfair hoops families are having to jump through in order to achieve their dream of giving a child a permanent home.

And the losers are the vulnerable children being shifted from one foster placement to another.

Body mass index is just one factor being used to justify rejecting local adoption, even when prospective parents are deemed to be otherwise healthy.

It is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared.

In one case a 25-year-old woman was told she could not adopt because her BMI was too high, despite having run three triathlons in the year prior and regularly attending the gym.

She went on to have gastric sleeve surgery — permanently removing a part of her stomach — just to meet the requirements and adopt a child.

In another case a 41-year-old adoptive parent’s BMI was too high because he had lost weight and built up more muscle mass.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare there are more than 30,000 children who have been living separately from their birth families for over two years who need permanency in Australia.

Last year only 196 Australian children were adopted, five per cent less than the previous year and the lowest number on record.

A couple couldn't adopt as the husband was considered to be too fat based on his BMI being too high. Picture: David Caird

Adopt Change’s research of 1053 people found 83 per cent of survey respondents had experienced barriers in the adoption process.

A total of 57 per cent experienced delays, including 40 per cent who spent five or more years in the adoption process.

And 82 per cent found the entire experience overwhelming with only 33 per cent getting adequate support from their foster agency or department.

Adopt Change CEO Renée Carter said some of the barriers to adoption, such as BMI but also age and length of marriage, were just “bizarre”.

“The current system is broken and we need urgent change in order to provide these children with a more permanent and supportive environment, rather than barriers to belonging,” she said.  

Assistant Minister for Social Services Zed Seselja said the state governments needed to do more to ensure kids weren’t missing out on the prospect of a forever home.

“Frankly some states need to show they are serious on this issue,” Senator Seselja said.

“They haven’t done enough to address the barriers that exist.”

Opposition social services spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said assessment criteria needed urgent reform and a rejection for reasons such as BMI was “not fair”.

“The adoption rules need to be focused on ensuring what’s best for the child,” Ms Macklin said.

“That should mean reforming the assessment criteria so that it’s focused on factors directly related to the likely success of an adoption.”

Australian Medical Association President Michael Gannon said he was “shocked” that BMI was being used as a consideration to deny adoption.

“BMI is a long way from being a perfect measure of someone’s weight or wellbeing,” Dr Gannon said.

AMA President Dr Michael Gannon said hse was shocked by the BMI being used as a way of denying adoption. Picture: Ray Strange.

‘I HAD RUN THREE TRIATHLONS’

SHE’D just completed her third triathlon in a year, and was going to the gym daily, but was told she couldn’t realise her dream of adopting a child... because she was too fat.

Or rather, the politically correct message was her BMI was too high.

And so began a seven-year battle for Melissa* and Chris* to start their own family.

Today, with their beautiful two-year-old boy James* in their arms, it all seems a distant nightmare.

But most people wouldn’t have survived the rigorous scrutiny and changes demanded by authorities to have the couple meet the criteria to adopt.

Melissa said she had to undergo gastric sleeve surgery — permanently removing a part of her stomach — to continue their adoption dream.

“I was 100kg at the time we were rejected on the basis of BMI. Absolutely I was overweight but I had run three triathlons in that year beforehand and I was not unhealthy or unable to care for a child,” she told News Corp Australia.
“I also had polycystic ovarian syndrome and one of the side effects of that is being overweight.”

Melissa said she lost 50 kilograms to ensure the couple could be approved for adoption.

But even after the surgery they were told they could not adopt because they did not have enough experience with children — despite Chris being a teacher.

Eventually they got a break and were approved to adopt little James, but the whole process took more than seven years.

Melissa said it should not have been so hard, with the assessment criteria outdated.

“I recognise the need for vetting of adopted parents but BMI should not be a knockout indicator of whether or not we could care for a child,” she said.

“I think there are a lot of wonderful people who could be great parents who haven’t been approved because of these arbitrary measures that really don’t contribute to how good a parent they could be.”

A man was considered too fat to be able to adopt, as his BMI was too high. He goes to the gym five days per week so his body fat went down, and muscle mass increased but this then pushed him into the overweight category. Picture: David Caird

‘I WAS SO PISSED OFF’

FOR Martin*, dropping a few suit sizes and bulking up with a bit of muscle was a great thing.

The 41-year-old was pleased to be making strides in his fitness, but was blissfully unaware his time at the gym had the potential to shatter his chances of adopting a sibling for their older son.

“I was so pissed off when we were told my BMI could impact our chances,” Martin said.

“I had been training so hard at the gym and it just didn’t make sense.”

Martin was just days away from having to submit an updated health assessment that would have shown his BMI had jumped out of the accepted range due to muscle weighing more than fat, knocking them out of contention for adoption.

He and wife Jessica* thank their lucky stars the call to adopt their second child came before the cut-off.

“If that was our first adoption we would have absolutely been rejected,” he said.

“Luckily we were already in the system and the caseworkers knew us and so pushed through our paperwork — otherwise it would have been lost to the rigid assessment and I would have been deemed too fat according to BMI.

“You’d rather not go to the gym and stay unfit if it meant you would lose out on getting to be a father.”

Jessica said the couple were “extremely lucky” but felt devastated for the thousands of kids and couples that were missing out because of the outdated barriers to adoption that still exist in the system.

“I do know other people have been turned away because of their weight,” she said.

“I know people who have just given up then or gone on massive exercise plans to try and adopt a child. It’s just wrong.”

*Names altered for legal reasons

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