SC DEBATE: NYC ADOPTION FACTS

RHETORIC: Giuliani Said Adoptions Went Up 133%. Giuliani continues to use wrong numbers on adoptions when trying to explain his position on choice. Tonight he said adoptions “went up 133%” while he was mayor.

REALITY: Adoptions Declined 5 Years Out Of Seven, Were Going Down When He Left, Only Went Up 17% Overall. In fact, the independent group FactCheck.org has twice debunked Giuliani’s misleading numbers. In a recent article they wrote that “Adoptions declined in five of the mayor's last six years,” using the same set of official numbers that the Giuliani campaign relies on. They said this is “a classic case of how candidates and public officials sometimes use data selectively to create a false impression.” The data shows that adoptions went down for most of the years he ran the city, by as much as 17% one year, including the last five years he was in office. They only went up in two years. And as FactCheck noted, his 67% claim is wrong, because adoptions overall were “only 17 percent higher than at the start, and falling.” [“Levitating Numbers,” Factcheck.org, 5/7/07, http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/levitating_numbers.html; “Adoption Finalizations: Fiscal Years 1989-2003,” 2003 End Review, NYC Administration For Children’s Services (PDF), p.14 ]