Independence for Adoptees?

My natural Mother, Norma Carol, was a social activist and author who wrote articles for a local newspaper. One of my treasured possessions is an article she wrote about Alice Paul, a women's activist who fought for the right of women to vote in the early 1900's.

If my Mother were alive today we'd be standing arm-in-arm speaking out about the closed record system in adoption.
She could have been one of the brave women interviewed by Ann Fessler in "The Girls Who Went Away".

She registered on the ALMA Registry, and told her family never to forget that I would someday come looking. All the while, she searched for a "son" because the hospital and attorneys told her that she had given birth to a boy by c-section, when truth was, I was a daughter. That saddens me.
In 1968 it was almost impossible for a young, unmarried mother to keep her child. In 2015 it is very possible, but the same adoption issues that were prevalent in 1968 are still in force today.

Sealed records, secrecy, lies, coercion, and unethical practices permeate the adoption system.  When will our society realize and acknowledge the researched and proven fact that separating mother and child brings life-long consequences, and should never be done simply to build another family for those willing to pay. 

A humane society would never legalize "marketing" strategies to encourage the increase of children and babies "available" for adoption ~ yet here we are.  Sealed records benefit no one except those who profit from this unethical and unregulated system in the transfer and stripping of human identities.  Our nation will never have a truly honest discussion about adoption ethics unless money is removed from the adoption system (even in the form of federal adoption "incentives") and the inhumane practice of "amending" and "sealing" birth certificates is ended.   

One of my favorite movies is called "Iron-Jawed Angels", about the women's suffragist movement at the beginning of the 20th century ~ the story of Alice Paul and Susan B. Anthony. They fought for women's right to vote, even though many, including politicians and other women, thought they were "radical" and even "angry". Thanks to their hard work, determination, and refusal to give in, every American woman enjoys the right to vote in every election.

"Women in the Voting Booth", an article in the Daily Record, begins with...

"It was 90 years ago this month that women across the nation got the right to vote through ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. This was 144 years after the Declaration of Independence — proclaiming that "all men are created equal" was signed, and 50 years after African-American men were given the right to vote."

When will adoptee's be given the simple right to their own identity? 

Adoptees deserve the same right as every other American citizen to access their own original birth certificate and court records upon adulthood.

It will be a wonderful day when ALL Adoptees can proudly walk into the Bureau of Vital Statistics office and request their own original, unfalsified birth certificate without "good cause", without shame, and with equal standing.

Adoption Reform Speech: "THIS TIME MUST COME"

By Sandy Musser

Presented at the First March on Washington Adoption in August of 1989, by Sandy Musser, a natural mother who went to federal prison for helping people search:

"I stand here before you today as a civil rights activist for the adoption reform movement. But I want to talk about three well-known activists of other eras who loudly and clearly proclaimed the need of freedom for their people."If a man named Moses were standing here before us today, I believe he would be speaking on our behalf and say to our present government - Let My People Go! Because Moses was not only the leader of the Jewish nation- he was also the most famous adoptee - one who had been adopted outside of his Jewish heritage and Jewish faith.But when he became aware of the bondage his people were in, he fought and persisted to see that they were set free. The Bible says that God heard the heart cries of His people. Our heart cries are now beginning to be heard around this country. We fight against the plagues of the adoption and child welfare system - the plague of the sealed record, which always equals cover-up; and the great plague of all - a corrupt system that has become a billion dollar business!" But I believe that we're well on our way to the Promised Land, and that most intelligent, caring individuals really want truth and openness - not secrecy and lies. This will be a land that will not see the need to sever birth roots nor eradicate the family name; a time when guardianship is a more cherished role than ownership. It will be a land that will not require the control of the social work profession, nor legislated rules and regulations; a land where no money need exchange hands (known as "fees") in order to adopt a child. Our Promised Land will be a land where adoptees, birthparents, and adoptive parents can come together and form a circle of love that will be immersed with openness, honest; and heartfelt caring."

If Susan B. Anthony were standing before us today - she, too, would be speaking out on our behalf. She, too, would be saying, let these people go. She knew what it meant to be denied rights - rights that her male counterparts enjoyed. She fought and led the women of America through the streets and halls of justice so that they too could have a voice at the ballot box. In 1873, she and 15 other women marched to the voting booth and exercised their God-given right to vote - and for this she stood trial. She was prosecuted and fined - a fine she refused to pay. How many of us are going to have to stand trial, pay fines, and be prosecuted for demanding or exercising our God-given right to our original birth certificate or other records concerning our own lives?"

If Martin Luther King could be here today, he would most likely be at the forefront of our March. He would be raising his hands, his head, and his voice, heavenward and shouting to the world - Let these people go! In one of his famous speeches, Martin Luther King said, "I have a dream that someday our people will not be judged by the color of their skin" We share a similar dream - that the day will soon come when we will not be judged or branded because we bear the name of 'adoptee,' birthparent' or adoptive parent.'

"We pray for the day that we will not have to bargain, plead, beg, petition or pay for what is rightfully ours. We anticipate the day when legal documents called birth certificates will no longer be falsified - when birthmothers are no longer signed into the hospital under an assumed name, given them by an agency or attorney - we look toward the day when a simple request for information will be granted - and when Big Brother no longer stands over us with folded arms guarding our most prized possession - our BIRTHRIGHT!"

Finally, I want to share the words of a poem written by MaryAnneCohen, a birth mother with great insight and foresight. It's entitled 'THIS TIME MUST COME'

"TIME WILL COME when our tragedy will not be replayed, When no child will be torn out of the arms of love into the arms of money. When all births will be blessed, all equal. And there will be no word remembered to brand a child born outside society's ties, no recording of legal lies…When love is more lasting than papers, and no child is deprived of either heritage or nurturing, even when they come from separate places. And it is finally seen that blood and home are not the same, And neither replaces the other, and there is no quota for love…

"TIME WILL COME when social workers are to serve, not sever; When they know it is better to unite than separate, To be true than to lie, to be seen than to hide, To accept than renounce, that the give and nurturing of life are both sacred and deserving of respect; That all parents are real parent, not rivals. That love is stronger than fear of laws or time,and cannot be terminated, cannot be legislated, cannot be denied…

"TIME WILL COME when all children can grow, become real, cast off shadows, renew or sever ties by their own choice, be responsible, BE FREE! When our bondage ends, and we answer to our children; Answer with the gift of sight, gift of words, gift of sorrow…When every person has the right to trace their roots in their mother's face, their father's eyes…When nobody is condemned to eternal childhood,and no mother cries forever…

"THIS TIME MUST COME"Copyright © 1989, 2001 Sandy Musser.Visit Sandy's website at http://www.angelfire.com/fl2/musser

Santa's Antithesis?

© Photographer: Aguirre_mar | Agency: Dreamstime.com

(Originally published in 2010...we ate at the same restaurant today and I was reminded of this day...)

Something happened today that I still can't believe...the timing, especially.

I had been wanting to pay the attorney that was involved in my adoption way back in 1968 a visit for a long time, but it was one of those things I just kept putting off. I knew he was still "in business" and wanted to talk to him personally while I still had the chance...to see if he might remember something...anything...about my original mother. She died at the age of 32 while looking for me but was somehow under the impression she had given birth to a son.

The only other contact I had with this attorney was several years ago when I was trying to get my adoption records opened at the court house. I had already obtained a court order for my obc and reunited with my entire original family years before. But I wanted the adoption records themselves...

The Judge had approved my request, but every time I called to see if the records were available yet, the clerk stated that they could not find my file. Finally, after several calls I started to panic. They kept saying it could not be found...

So...I called this attorney to see if there might have been a chance that the adoption was finalized in a different county. As soon as I told him that I was reunited with my family and explained the situation about the file not being located at the court house, he became defensive. He asked how I ever got the information to find my original mother and then said, "If I had done my job right, you would have never been able to find out anything." Needless to say, he wasn't much help.

I made one last attempt at the court house and finally they found my file "in the basement." It was so surreal reading my own file...my parent's home study (barely 2 typed pages), and my mother's signature on the consent.

I had to give all that background information to get back to my story...So today my husband and I had met for lunch at one of our favorite Thai restaurants. The tables in this place are really close together and it was packed. I noticed a nice-looking older gentleman at the table next to us, but didn't pay any attention to him. He even offered to share his table with another man who needed a place to eat (it is a great buffet), and I guess my husband overheard them introducing themselves to each other.

He didn't mention this to me until we were up at the cash register paying for our meal...casually, he mentioned, "Does the name O.G. mean anything to you?" What?

Why yes...immediately I told my husband I had to go back and find out if he was THE O.G. who had done my adoption...

Sure enough, he was. He invited me to sit down and we had a wonderful conversation...I'm sure it was a huge surprise when I pulled out of my purse a picture of my first Mom...He slowly took his glasses off and examined the picture, but said he couldn't remember that far back. He said he did 35 adoptions a year back then...and "did everything possible to keep things secret."

He said he wrote the same non-identifying information on every file...all his "birthmoms" were 5'3, weighed 120 pounds and were Baptist. It hit me that is what was in my file, and I always wondered why my first Mom's pictures made her look taller than that. Now I knew.  I was so flabbergasted that I forgot to ask him why my First Mother thought she had given birth to a boy.  She was awaiting the return of her son, up till the day she passed away.  That makes me so sad.

I have heard other reunion stories where the first mother had been told she had given birth to the opposite gender as well.  Some have been livid that their names were changed on the birth certificate, and dates of birth as well.  All to prevent the first mother from "interfering" or "coming back". 

He admitted that back then he "didn't even think about" the consequences of his actions. He said he gets calls all the time from adoptees and first mothers, but cannot help them at all. That's when I gave him my card...he seemed genuinely pleased and said he would definitely give them my name. It felt so good to "come full circle" yet again and have this chance encounter. Especially right now...the week of a great conference being held in our state..."Life...Adopted!"  

(This is now 2014 and I have yet to receive one call from anyone he referred to me for search help.)

As he drove away in his shiny, white Lexus, I tried hard not to be judgemental.

How could a man, so polite and warm (he reminded me of a small-statured, sweet-mannered Santa Claus) have done what he did so many years ago...I have to believe it was ignorance. Society dictated so much (see "The Girls Who Went Away")...and yet was so wrong.

He is still a practicing attorney and has been for 52 years he said. I'm sure for many adoptive parents O.G. WAS Santa Claus...at some point, however, we all must grow up. Santa Claus and sealed records create quite an illusion, one more innocent than the other.

One has to wonder WHY the adoption industry fights so hard against restoring the civil right of adult adoptees to obtain their birth records...especially when we find story after story of past and current unethical practices being perpetuated against first mothers, adoptees, and even adoptive parents in adoption. (See "The Girls Who Went Away" by Ann Fessler, or "The Baby Thief" by Barbara Raymond.

I can only pray that as adoptees and original mothers continue to tell our stories that laws will be changed so the actions of ignorance cannot continue to affect those "touched" by adoption. We can't rely on piece-meal legislation and adoption codes that fail to protect the identity rights of adoptees (both the generations of the past, as well as today).

We need laws to ensure ethical practices are being followed...not just hope against hope that adoptees will even have a factual birth certificate on file. Ensure that right for every adoptee and individual born through assisted reproduction...genetic truth, heritage, and history.

Amazing day indeed.

"Personhood" for Whom?

“The laws of this state shall be interpreted and construed to acknowledge on behalf of the unborn child at every stage of development all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state." ~ language in the newly passed Oklahoma "Personhood" bill

* As a pro-life Oklahoman and an adult adoptee, I am saddened by the lobbying effort of the Right to Life groups against ethical adoption reform and adoptee access legislation.  See "When It Is Illegal To Know Who You Are."

Think about it. Adoptee's very identities are aborted when their birth certificate is sealed. No matter how much they love their adoptive family, they live their entire lives asked to fulfill the legal role of someone they were not born as. They are human beings who have a right to know their truth. 

I would like to address pervasive myths regarding Adoptee Access Legislation currently
being passed in several states across our nation. Restoring the
unconditional right of adult adoptees to obtain their original birth
certificates is a human right supported by The Child Welfare League of
America and several other child advocacy and adoption groups. Statistics
in the states that have restored this right show that abortion rates do not increase and adoption rates do not decrease.
(See American Adoption Congress at http://www.americanadoptioncongress.org/reform_adoption_data.php)

The Supreme Courts of both TN and OR (both adoptee access states) have ruled that birthmother's were never promised confidentiality under the law, but instead, archaic
"sealed records" laws in adoption were only enacted to
protect the newly formed adoptive family. In fact, if a birthmother
relinquishes her child for adoption, but for some reason the child is
never adopted, that child's original birth certificate is never amended
or sealed. This alone proves that "sealed records" was not enacted to
protect the "privacy" rights of birthmothers. It was enforced upon them.

The true story of Philomena Lee shares the plight of millions of women during the "Baby Scoop Era" who lost their children to adoption. 
(See Jan Baker's article, "Open Records: Do Birthmother's Need Protected? at http://adoption.about.com/od/adoptionrights/a/openbirthmompro.htm) 
Kansas, our neighbor to the north, has never sealed original birth
certificates to adult adoptees. Restoring the right of adult adoptees to
obtain their original birth certificates is a basic human right.

Birth certificates of American citizens should never be "sealed" or "amended" (falsified) from the very person they belong to, yet the adoption industry continues these practices. This is unethical and violates the very core beliefs that the "right to life" movement claims to support.  Whose interests do we serve?      

True "personhood" mentality would not permit this to happen to millions of fellow human beings. Yet, these very organizations lobby against adoptee access legislation.  They lobby against ethical adoption reform measures that would ensure human-rights protections for the very ones they claim to serve (OK HB 2442 & HB 3011).  See "Veronica Case Leads to Adoption Reform Proposals".   

Their powerful lobby reduces adopted individuals to a commodity; our very identities sealed and amended for the fulfillment of an economically driven supply & demand based system.(See "Shotgun Adoption" in The Nation ~
http://www.thenation.com/article/shotgun-adoption) or "Giving Away Baby".

Legislators can prove themselves as "pro-life" by extending the SAME rights and privileges of "personhood" to adult adoptees. 

Currently, in all but 7 states, adoptees remain "perpetual children" in the eyes of the law, without the rights and privileges afforded to every other American citizen to access their own record of birth. Archaic "sealed records" law strips adopted citizens of their human dignity, identity, and history.
(For information about the states that have enacted this legislation see Adoptee Rights Coalition at http://www.adopteerightscoalition.com/p/for-legislators.html)

It Was As If You Were Expecting Victory

© Photographer: Rtimages | Agency: Dreamstime.com

It worked for Luper ~ Maybe some 'sit-ins' are in order at the Vital Stats office regarding the "sealed records" system in adoption?

In honor of Martin Luther King Day I'd like to repost this article about civil rights hero, Clara Luper ~ what an inspiration!

I so wish my beautiful Mom and first Mother were here to help celebrate their grandson's birthday this weekend.  What an honor for him to share a birthday near Dr. King's. 

It was as if you were expecting victory: Luper took front seat in segregation fight
by: NORA FROESCHLE
World Staff Writer 7/15/2007

The battle for civil rights in Oklahoma had perhaps its most defining moment in 1958 at a drugstore counter in Oklahoma City. A history teacher named Clara Luper captured the attention of local and national media by organizing what is thought to be one of the first publicized sit-ins. "It was as if you were expecting victory, just waiting on time," Luper, 84, said in a recent interview at her Oklahoma City home. "I just think that it happened yesterday; it's that fresh in my mind."

Sit-inners, as they were called by those in the movement, would gather at Katz Drugstore in Oklahoma City, find an open seat and order a soda. The drinks never came. Sometimes five hours would tick by at Katz and other segregated establishments in Oklahoma City and around the state. Luper, then a history teacher at John Marshall High School, led the student sit-ins with her three children in tow.

"I must have been 11 or 12," said her son Calvin Luper, 60. "It definitely had an effect on my entire life. It made me walk the line straighter than a lot of teenagers." Calvin Luper recalled a cross-country trip to New York City to perform a play for the youth council of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. For the first time in their lives, the young people sat at cafe counters in cities and towns along a northern route. "That was a feeling that to this day I cannot adequately describe," Calvin Luper said.

The group was hit with the reality of segregation when they returned home through the South. "I wanted the kids to see segregation in other places than Oklahoma," Clara Luper said. Often referred to as the mother of the civil rights movement in Oklahoma, Luper was arrested 26 times during the six years she led sit-ins in Oklahoma City and around the state. Luper said her father inspired her to believe things could change. Calvin Luper becomes emotional when he talks about his grandfather. "My grandfather never had the opportunity to take us to a restaurant. You know how your grandparents bring you to Furr's . . . he never had the opportunity because of that 'lady' segregation," he said.

But Clara Luper said she always knew a change was going to come. "The majority of blacks never accepted segregation as a way of life. They believed it was a temporary situation," Luper said. In 1964, one sit-inner finally got his drink order. "I didn't worry because I believed in a God that I'd never seen. I just believed," she said.

Stolen Identities

© Photographer: Drx | Agency: Dreamstime.com

The issue of humans rights for adults who were adopted as children ~ whether domestically or internationally, affects millions of Americans and their families.

Adopted individuals are the only group of American citizens who are NOT afforded the RIGHT of owning their OWN original birth certificates and identity information.  Unless you are personally affected by these archaic "sealed records" laws ~ it probably doesn't seem very important. BUT IT IS.

You see, there are proven life-long issues for individuals who are separated from their family of origin. AND there is a billion-dollar BUSINESS of separating children from their family of origin, in order to fulfill another family's desires.

This same business lobbies state governments to keep all these transactions SEALED permanently, even to the PRODUCT of these transactions ~ the adoptee. Since when should HUMANS be allowed to be the PRODUCT of an industry? Most instances of this happening are fought against vehemently in society ~ child-trafficking, slavery, etc. So why are sealed and amended (falsified) birth certificates accepted without question?

Why are adults prohibited from knowing their PERSONAL identity, history, origins, genealogy, medical history, and roots ~ FOREVER? These are some extremely important HUMAN RIGHTS issues that need answers ~ here in our own 50+ states. It affects millions of individuals, families, and decendents of adoptees.

Several U.S. states (most recently New Hampshire, Rhode Island & Oregon) have passed legislation which RESTORES the RIGHT of adult adoptees to their original birth certificate.  Kansas and Alaska have NEVER sealed original birth certificates from adult adoptees.  

Adoptees have been working diligently for DECADES to make this issue known and to educate lawmakers. The sad, sad story ~ we are being silenced, shamed, contradicted, and refuted by the VERY "professionals" who SAY they were working on our behalf ~ the adoption agencies & attorneys ~ the situation remains that adopted children DO NOT REMAIN CHILDREN FOREVER. Yet the laws treat us as perpetual children with NO rights to our own identity and birth information. It affects us personally on a primal level, it affects our spouses, our children, our grandchildren, and all those who come after us.

Adoption law can best be explained as state-sanctioned identity theft.

I've been attending an Adoption Task Force at my state's Capitol recently where the State Dept. of Health reasoned that it would be too expensive to keep count of the number of adoptions completed in our state ~ not fiscally possible. They even mentioned to one Task Force member that they are receiving original birth certificates for babies targeted for adoption (those in "open" adoptions, which by the way, are not legally enforceable and could become "closed" adoptions at the adoptive parent's will) where the potential adoptive parent's names are ALREADY being listed on the obc, before the adoption is even finalized and a new "Amended" birth certificate is issued.

When the legislators present expressed concern about this practice and the Task Force was questioned, one adoption professional spoke up saying "it is the birthmother's 'choice' to put whatever she chooses on the original birth certificate". This just happens to be a representative from an adoption agency who has been in business for many years and is notorious for using "alias" names for first mothers who were shamed into placing their babies during the "Baby Scoop Era" of the 50's, 60's and 70's (see Jan Baker's article, "Do We Really Need to Be Protected.") 

One adoptee I know found her first mother only because she paid this agency several hundred dollars to act as an intermediary. They were the only ones with the information to match the alias name on her obc with her first mother's true name. Once they were reunited, her first mother could not believe there was an alias name on her daughter's birth certificate and was under the impression her daughter would be able "find her" easily once she turned 18. So untrue. 

Without a true and factual (unfalsified) government document "Certificate of Live Birth", and an adult adoptee's right to access this important information, our civil rights continue to be violated.

Myths perpetuated by the adoption industry fighting to keep records sealed are simply not true.

We continue to dispel common myths surrounding adoptee access, sharing the good news that in the states which have implemented this law, abortion rates have actually declined more than the national average, and that birth mother "confidentiality" was also a myth perpetuated by the adoption industry. In fact, birth mothers were never promised (nor asked for) confidentiality in the law. It was enforced upon them.

The TN and OR Supreme Courts have both ruled on this issue. "Sealed records" were not implemented until 1939 in OK ~ to protect the newly formed adoptive family, not birthmothers.  In fact, even today, if a birthmother relinquishes her child for adoption, but for some reason the child is never adopted and remains in foster care, his/her original birth certificate is never sealed or amended.
   

Please read more ("Birthright" by Jean Strauss; "The Baby Thief" by Barbara Raymond) about this important HUMAN RIGHTS issue and come along side adult adoptees (along with their families) who are simply asking for the same right as every other American citizen. 

In August of each year, adoptees and their families from around the nation come together and share this important information at the National Convention of State Legislators during  Adoptee Rights Day.  Consider how you can personally help to "open the wells" for adoptees and their families. 

Please contact your local state Legislator today and let them know about this important issue!

Sleezy Sales Tactics & Adoption

                                                                              


Wow ~ 1976 was such a lonnnggg time ago! I remember the year well because of the hoopla surrounding the Bicentennial Birthday of America.

I was 8 years old and fondly remember getting our first microwave oven that year! Isn't it weird what you remember as a child??? lol I still remember a family-friend visiting us and proudly showing him the new, fascinating contraption that actually cooked food without getting hot! Wow! He about freaked when I stuck my hand in it after it "dinged", thinking I would surely get burned ~ but NO, that was it's beauty. At least we sure thought so back then. Of course, now we hear how dangerous microwaves can really be to our overall health.

Kind of like another social experiment (bill of goods) that has been cleverly "sold" to the American public.

I was "touched" by it also ~ the big myth is that adoption is harmless, win-win, and certainly won't burn. As far back as 1976 the NY State Commission of Child Welfare was hearing the warning ~ how detrimental the social experiment of sealed adoption really was. But here we are in 2013 and still only 7 states have heeded the call to provide adult adoptees with the simple and equal right to their original birth certificates.

Wonder how many MORE years it is going to take before our society can look back on this sad span of adoption history and finally be able to say that ALL citizens have the same right to know their genealogical histories and identities. I hope it doesn't take another centennial, for sure. So many adoptees, and their children after them, DIE without knowing or being given the simple dignity of identity. Please join me in NEVER GIVING UP with this important work and message...THANK YOU to so many who have gone before us and paved the way in this road to winning adoptee access to their own records. 

The following is testimony offered in regard to sealed adoption records
and the search for identity. This testimony was given in 1976 to the
New York State Commission on Child Welfare by Vincenette Scheppler. It
is still pertinent today.

"My testimony today is based on my experience as a psychiatric social
worker who has provided therapy for adolescents, many of whom were
adopted. I have also been involved for seven years as a director of adoption
programs. My work has been with unwed mothers and fathers, adoptive
parents, adoptive children and adult adoptees. While all of this
experience has convinced me of the need for open records as a contribution to
the mental well-being of adoptees, nothing has persuaded me more than the
testimony of my own adopted children.
Although the original sealing of adoption records was perhaps
understandable on the basis of an earlier lack of knowledge, what we have since
learned makes the concept today truly inexcusable.
For a long time it was a rather generally held view that only the
disturbed and/or unhappy person would want to seek out his biological
parents. It was honestly believed adoption created a totally new life for a
child and there was no need to seek out information about his biological
heritage. Now we know this is simply not so. Every adopted child has
to face what I have chosen to call the adoption dilemma. The essence of
this
dilemma is in the fact that every adopted child has two sets of
parents. He must somehow come to know them both and to settle for himself what
his relationship is to be with each. Although some of this may be
beyond his control, he will try. Knowledge of his biological parents may be
actual, it may be by way of information that is enough to satisfy him,
or, if neither of these is possible, it will be imaginary. But know
them he must if he is to resolve his dilemma and thus free himself to be
all he is capable of being.
All humans, in order to grow and become mature adults, must resolve
their relationship with their parents. By daily contact they learn the
reality of that relationship and grow in their ability to move away and
become independent individuals. This task is complicated for the adopted
child who has two sets of parents. Some may tend to deny one set or the
other, but this is often accomplished at a very high emotional cost.
Let those of us who have some authority to act not be responsible for
further complicating this difficult task by keeping from adult adoptees
information the rest of us accept as a matter-of-course. Let us not
force them to waste valuable time, energy and emotional stamina better used
for the building of a creative, productive life. Spare them the
necessity of obtaining this vital information in an illegal, frustrating and
perhaps unsuccessful search.
The social work profession, undoubtedly composed of dedicated, sincere
workers who certainly want what is best for all parties concerned, must
now face the fact that the sealing of records has been responsible for
much unnecessary heartache for everyone involved in adoption. Let us
consider some of the reasons for this sealing.
Perhaps the most frequently given reason is the respect for
confidentiality. This is based on the myth that parents who surrender their
children do, indeed, want to be protected from them. The fact is that at the
time of the signing of a surrender, parents have had to be convinced
the only way they could provide a home for the child was to completely
relinquish their right to any future knowledge of it's existence. Many
have written frequently to ask about the child's well-being. Others,
believing they could not obtain any information, have agonized in silence.
Another argument against open records has been the felt need to protect
the adoptee from unpleasant information. There are, in truth, no happy
circumstances that lead to adoption. The very fact that a child needs
to be placed in an adoptive home tells us something unpleasant has
already happened to him. He may have been born of unmarried parents who
were not prepared to take on the responsibility of caring for him. He may
have been the product of rape or incest or an extra-marital affair. He
may have been forcibly removed from his parents by the courts because
of neglect or abuse. He may have been abandoned. To try to protect
people from such information is truly naive. The unknown frequently holds
far more horror than any truth. Both social workers and adoptive parents
have been guilty in the past of fostering a vague, meaningless
'explanation' to all adopted children that has, in effect, left all with the
feeling there is no way to learn why their placement was necessary. Your
mo
ther gave you up because she loved you, we told them all, as if that
made any sense whatsoever. She wanted what was best for you so she gave
you to an agency to make sure they found the best possible home for you.
And now adults who were adopted as children are telling us that such
answers will not suffice. Their message is clear. they must work out
their dilemma. . . their own dilemma. This is a very personal matter and
can best be accomplished when the adoptee is able to understand the
reason for his placement.
All of this has led to society's continually treating the adult adoptee
as if he were perpetually a child. It is certainly possible the adult
adoptee who seeks out his past may encounter rejection and
unpleasantness. This possibility - not probability - is in no way a justification
for denying adults their right to know. The idea that some adults can
decide for other adults what part of their own person they can be allowed
to know is reprehensible. Every individual has a right to come to
grips with his own past.
Finally, there is the objection that open records invade the rights of
adoptive parents. Surely, while children are still minors, adoptive
parents and children need to be protected from custody suits. This
argument can no longer hold when those children become adults. The
parent-child relationship which has grown over the years need not be threatened
because the adoptee now seeks to explore that other part of his being.
The parents who understand the need for their children to work out their
dilemma will recognize it is in no way a repudiation of them.
Some adoptees argue they feel no need to seek out information about
their biological background. That is their right. But hopefully this will
not be a basis for denying equal rights to those who do.
The question arises, how to make information available. Some have
suggested third party mediators. If adoptees have the right to grow and
handle their own problems as mature human beings, free of the need for
continual parenting and protection by all of society, we must accept the
fact mature people can make their own arrangements without third party
involvement. Indeed, one of the most tragic aspects of adoption as we
know it rises from society's unwillingness to recognize we are not
speaking of children.
In closing, I would like to share with you the words of my twelve year
old son. When he learned I was coming to this hearing, Tom said, Mom,
please make them understand. We don't want to run away. We just want to
know."

- Vincenette Scheppler, M.S.W.
So, 1976. 1976. Just think about that for a bit.

Copied from http://www.arvinpublications.com/adoptionrecords.html. The
site says it can be freely quoted by anyone working to achieve open
records.

"Mr. Caterpillar": The Saga

© Photographer: Mkoudis | Agency: Dreamstime.com

It's amazing how every day "life" shares wisdom, if I am just open to listen.

One of my favorite times of the day is when I get to pick my son up from school. We are so blessed that he attends what I consider the BEST preschool in our hometown. Truly. He loves it, is growing and developing, feels loved, and shines the biggest smile both when he walks in the classroom each morning, and when I pick him up in the afternoon. I so wish he could get his college degree from this school! lol

Anyway, this afternoon, after my brief bask in feeling his little arms around my neck in our "pick me up from school hug", my son eagerly lifted his index finger to my face, proudly displaying a smiley face that had been carefully drawn with a marker. "Look Mommy", he excitedly said. "Mr. Caterpillar!" I drew my head back to focus on this tiny miracle of a finger he was so proud of, brought it to my lips, and gently kissed the smiling "caterpillar", which matched the smile on both our faces. What a joy he is.

We hurriedly made it down the hall and to the bathroom for our traditional "potty" stop before heading home. And that's where this tragedy began. In the stress of trying to hurry through the routine and make sure our hands were washed, I failed to take the time to really listen. You see, being premature, my son struggles with communication. He tries so hard, and is doing an amazing job. But it takes extra patience to encourage his voice, his words, for him to get his complete thought out, instead of being overcome with frustration and emotion in trying. Any time we are pressed for time or feeling the least bit stressed, it complicates this for him. That alone motivates me to grow as a person and parent. I take nothing for granted. Nothing. Because he was so small.

But in trying to get out of the bathroom quick, to let the next person in, I hurriedly "helped" him wash his hands and couldn't understand why he was so frantically protesting. "It's just dirt and we have to wash it off," I impatiently exclaimed, as Mr. Caterpillar's eyes and mouth (too tiny and unrecognizable to even jog my memory of the loving moment of our introduction just moments ago in the classroom) disappeared down the drain. Finally able to spit it out, "But Mommy, his eyes!", it was too late. "Mr. Caterpillar" was gone. In the minutes that ensued of anger and rebuke, I knew my son's heart was broken.

I so pray he will learn to more easily cry when he is hurt or disappointed. For his own sake. It hurts (understatement) to imagine what he must have endured those months in the NICU, along with the pain of being separated from his Mother. Jesus, fill him with Your "intensive care" to completely heal his heart and emotions, I pray.

After profusely apologizing, we finally made it out to the car. I rejoiced inside to see Andrew's sweet smile erupt as we artfully re-discovered "Mr. Caterpillar", his beloved friend. Not only did we draw "Mr. Caterpillar", but Mr. Caterpillar's Mommy & Daddy! What a love-fest as they all hugged and kissed in sweet reunion. MMMAUH!

This not so insignificant incident reminded me in so many ways of adoption.
Adoptee's very identities are legally washed down the drain, through "sealed records", yet how many times are they dismissed in the struggle to communicate, when this is such a primal (even preverbal) part of their experience?

Why aren't they heard when protesting "sealed records", or the unethical practice of "adoption" in today's society, which essentially equates to selling humans and sealing their identities from them? The outrageous financial transactions, unethical practices & laws surrounding adoption (fees, marketing and "incentives", and "sealed records") are screaming this truth, if only someone will listen. Thank God for the six US states who have listened (even The Child Welfare League of America supports adoptee access legislation) and passed laws restoring the civil right of adult adoptees to obtain their original birth certificate.

Is it too hard to hear because we are trying to accomplish a different agenda?

Even "Mr. Caterpillar" needed a little help to find himself out of the drain. Maybe now he can become a butterfly!

"A little child shall lead them."

Thank you, God, for such great teachers! Help us all learn to listen, I pray.

"Power" ~ The Operative Word

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Adoptees should be just like every other American citizen and have full unconditional access to their OWN birth certificate, identifying information, and court records. Anything less is ludicrous, discriminatory, and strips them of human rights ~ for both adoptees and their children and lineage after them. It isn't about smoke-screen issues ~ it is about adoptees having the same civil right as every other American citizen to own their obc and know their identity, heritage, genealogy, and medical histories.  Ethical issues in adoption cannot be adequately addressed without giving adoptees the same rights as other citizens ~ unconditional access to their obc upon adulthood. 

I saw a clip of a commercial for an upcoming movie about civil rights. A elderly black gentleman was sitting on a bus, when the bus driver turned around with a snarl on his face and said "the colored area starts one row back", for which the gentleman replies, "no, it starts right here."

Adoptees rights have been trampled on for decades in this country. Our permitted "area" of vital statistics has been boxed in with blanks, untruths, amended, falsified birth certificates, and vetos for long enough. We need to stand up and say "NO" ~ we want to enjoy the same civil rights as our fellow citizens ~ and it should start NOW ~ actually yesteryear. Civil rights activists took gutsy stands in the face of opposition, law, and those who misunderstood and held the commonly held societal view of them.

Adoptees have been fighting this same battle for decades now in state legislatures. We are the only American citizens (6 million of us or more) who are delegated to a completely different set of rules and standards regarding our OWN identities, court records, vital statistics, genealogy, health histories, and personal rights. It is time NOW to be brave, and come out of the shame that "sealed records" laws have inflicted on us.

Wilbur Wilberforce fought for decades in the English Parliament to outlaw slavery. He had to overcome the prevailing view of the time that to outlaw slavery would vastly hurt the economy of the wealthy and elite. This "business" aspect of the slave trade and unethical laws and lobby of the slave-traders was able to "cloud" the reasonable, other-wise "compassionate" hearts of lawmakers and society for years ~ while black slaves and their children lost their identities and freedom.

The entire battle had to be won again in America, so that black people would not be held to a completely different and derogatory set of rules, not able to enjoy the same freedoms as their white counterparts.

Women could not vote in America for a long time, and they eventually had to go after that right themselves.

The same with adoptees in this country. Our lives and the lives of our children are significantly affected by inhumane and derogatory adoption laws and procedures. Most of us were born and relinquished in the "Baby Scoop Era" of the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's ~ a time in history where society completely shunned young, unwed mothers (and still do in many instances) and NEEDED healthy, white babies to fulfill the families of those who could not have their own. Today is just another chapter of the same story.

Until adoptees come together and shed the shame and feeling of complete disloyalty when we take up our own voices and realize that we are NOT being disloyal to our adoptive parents, to our natural families, to the role that we were given, we will never enjoy the same confidence, freedom, and rights as our counterparts.

Thank God for role-models like Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Wilber Wilberforce and the list goes on and on ~ They were all shunned and silenced with their messages of hope, freedom, and equality in their day. But are now revered for thier messages and the freedom they brought to thousands after them. God bless them! I'm so thankful for those in the adoption world who are heralding the message of equal access to adult adoptees. They are my heroes too! God bless them!

Alberta law gives power to adoptive parents

The Edmonton Journal

Published: 3:02 am

It may be the only case among developed countries.

An unidentified Alberta family has won a ministerial order to keep its adoptee, an adult, in the dark about his or her adoption.

"Alberta has one feature in its adoption law which is different than any other law that I'm aware of in the western world," Dr. Michael Grand, a prominent adoption researcher, said in an interview from the University of Guelph, Ont.

That feature is in a section of the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act that lets adoptive families apply for a veto so biological parents can't see the adoptees' files. The veto can be used if the adoptive parents have not told their adoptees they are adopted, and where enlightening them "would be extremely detrimental to the adopted person."

The government has granted just one veto for an adoptive family, Children's Services spokeswoman Cathy Ducharme said.

Grand, a clinical psychologist who was co-director of a national study of adoption policies, said the provision is wrong-headed, particularly because it is aimed at adoptees who are now adults and who should be allowed to find out about their origins. Adoption records are closed until adoptees reach adulthood.

"Alberta has something unique that nobody else would even contemplate putting in," he said. "Why such a bizarre provision that doesn't appear anywhere else in the western world?"

He said he is familiar with adoption policies internationally, and has yet to come across anything like it.

Alberta opened its records to adult adoptees and their birth parents in 2004 so they can learn about each other and possibly reunite. As with other jurisdictions that have taken such a step, the province provided that it can veto access to the records, on request from the adoptees or birth parents.

British Columbia, Newfoundland and the Northwest Territories have also opened their records to birth parents and adoptees, and Ontario is developing similar legislation. None of them have taken Alberta's step of granting veto rights to adoptive parents, and no other province has such a veto provision.

"It was put in place to respond to public concerns," said Cathy Ducharme, spokeswoman for Children's Services. "When these types of vetoes are granted by the minister, there needs to be a lot of evidence that it would be in the best interest of the adoptee not to have this information released."

When the government introduced the veto provision, it suggested adoptive parents might use it where adoptees were conceived through incest or rape. Grand said such adoptees in Ontario have demanded to see their files. In Alberta, while there has been just one veto granted for adoptive parents, there have been 3,000 vetoes for birth parents and adoptees since the adoption reforms took effect.

If an adult adoptee or a birth parent request a veto, the veto ceases when that person dies. But vetoes placed by adoptive parents are permanent, unless their adoptees somehow discover they are adopted and ask to lift them. Vetoes are possible only on adoptions that happened before 2005.

Let the "Sunshine" In

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Every year, on the third week of March, advocates of open government celebrate Sunshine Week around the March 16th birthday of President James Madison. One of Congress' top lawmakers in the realm of the Freedom of Information Act says there is a lot of work to do in beefing up the most important open government laws. In 2009, Senator Patrick Leahy was a guest on "Federal News Radio" and said this:

"The right to know is a cornerstone of democracy. No democracy exists unless the people know what the government is doing in their name. If you're kept in the dark about key decisions that affect your lives, then that democracy fails.

Without access to public documents, officials can make decisions in the shadows, and often in collusion with special interests, they can escape accountability for their actions. And once eroded, the right to know is very hard to win back." (Senator Patrick Leahy)

* Original birth certificates and adoption records were not "sealed" in the United States until the 1930's and 40's. In her book, "The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, The Baby-Seller Who Corrupted Adoption", Barbara Raymond wrote about the chilling effect Georgia Tann had on influencing "sealed records" laws in adoption.

"How much power can one person have to make social change? In this fascinating account, author (and adoptive mother) Barbara Bisantz Raymond presents a compelling look at the social phenomenon of adoption in the United States, shaped as it is by Tann's crimes. Before the 1920s, few adoptions occurred...but Tann realized there could be a market...especially if she falsified and fabricated birth records and used her influence to close adoption records. Raymond recounts this astonishing and horrifying true story with tremendous self-awareness and intrepid research into Tann's ongoing legacy." - Tampa Tribune

The Child Welfare League of America supports legislation restoring the right of every American adoptee to obtain their original birth certificate. It is simply the right thing to do, to protect the rights & integrity of all Americans.

Falsified Original Birth Certificates

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Here are two articles on the same case in Florida which describes a very common practice in adoption ~ the falsification of the name of a natural mother on an original birth certificate. As in these cases, it was common for an adoption facilitator, agency, or attorney to encourage this practice.

In today's "open adoptions" the name of the potential adoptive parents are sometimes being listed on the child's original birth certificate, rather than waiting until the adoption is finalized and an amended birth certificate created.

This is a human rights violation and legislation should ensure that every American citizen has access to their own non-falsified original birth certificate, for identity, genealogical, and medical history.

Genealogists have concluded that because of archaic "sealed records" laws in adoption and fraudulant practices like this, a large percentage of all American's family genealogy will be inaccurate in another four generations. When we deny the human rights of one, it affects everyone.

Adoption in America will not be ethical and void of gross conflict of interest issues and civil rights violations until ALL adult adoptees are restored the unconditional right to obtain their obc; until legislation is passed to ensure unethical practices of falsifying birth certificates is stopped; and the almighty dollar is no longer the driving force in a supply/demand business of adoption.


MAN, 47, SUING TO ANNUL HIS OWN `BABY SALE' ADOPTION
http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/27405

Relates to: Winnie Faye Higginbotham Yarber (now Winnie Faye Whitaker)
Date: 1999-06-09
Miami Herald, The (FL)
Author: KAREN TESTA, Associated Press
Dateline: BOCA RATON

For nearly 20 years, Michael Chalek was tormented with unfulfilled questions of his birth, his adoption and his true parents.

Now, at age 47, he's condemned to know the answers.

Chalek discovered he'd been sold for $200 by a baby broker after his young mother was coerced into giving him up under an assumed name, state records unsealed recently show. Chalek claims that was the beginning of a childhood marked by sexual and verbal abuse.

His adoptive parents and the baby broker cannot defend themselves - they are all dead. But Chalek hopes a lawsuit filed this week in Alachua County will right some of the wrongs: he's asking to annul his 1953 adoption and get a new birth certificate with his true mother's name.

``By me doing that, it's making a statement that ought to be made,'' said Chalek, who moved a few months ago from Boca Raton to Estes, Colo. ``I think the individuals involved in this ought to be exposed.''

That has been Chalek's lifelong quest. He has been aided by investigators, including Virginia Snyder.

Chalek was born Jan. 25, 1952, in Jacksonville to Winnie Faye Higginbotham Yarber, a barroom waitress who had separated from her husband and became pregnant by another man.

Eight days later, the child then known as Baby Barnwell went home with Alex and Adela Chalek, who had contacted baby broker Lenora Fielding when they were not successful at having their own child, records show.

Florida adoption laws were not as strict then, and adoptions could be arranged by doctors or lawyers, said Josette P. Marquess, coordinator of the Florida Adoption Reunion Record. Adoptions such as those arranged by Fielding were not really legal - but that was largely ignored.

About a year after his adoption, Michael Chalek said, the Chaleks had their own son. Michael claims he began to suffer sexual abuse by his mother as he grew up in Gainesville and later in Atlanta. There is no record of any abuse being reported.

At age 11, he found out he was adopted and he became obsessed with wanting to know about his birth family, he said.

``It burned in my lower gut all the time,'' he said Tuesday. ``I always wondered every single day who I really was.''

A vital document
In 1981, Chalek found a document that named the hospital where he was born.

Seven years later, a judge listened to one of Chalek's repeated petitions to unseal his confidential records - something rarely done in Florida without a compelling medical need, Marquess said.

Judge Robert P. Cates allowed Chalek access to 100 pages of his early life's history. The revelations were startling, Chalek said.

Notes from state case workers showed Fielding coerced his birth mother into using a false name. The record also showed his mother asked a state worker if she could get the baby back.

The mother - Winnie Faye Whitaker - welcomed the telephone call this past December when Chalek finally found her. His birth father died sometime in the 1970s.

``I didn't want to give him up - but I was so young,'' said Whitaker, now 70, who added she supports Chalek's court request. ``I asked if I could just get the baby back, and they told me no. I'd already signed the papers.''

Those are the papers Chalek hopes to have annulled by his petition.

Madelyn Freundlich, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute in New York, said annulments of adoptions are extremely rare. And of those, most are sought by the parents, not the children. She's never heard of a new birth certificate being issued.

``This is really an unbelievable set of circumstances,'' said Freundlich, whose institute studies adoption issues.

Anger over payment
Attorney Mallory Horne, former Florida Senate president and House speaker who filed the petition on Chalek's behalf, said Chalek was angered by the fact his parents paid his birth mother for him.

``He took it more in the nature of a buying him, which really was an insult to him,'' Horne said.

Chalek hoped to sue the attorney who brought his adoption to the court and the judge who approved it - both now elderly men. Horne advised him he'd have no case.

Instead, Chalek has turned his efforts to mobilizing other adoptees in similar situations and has set up a website, www.adoption-fraud.com. He hopes if the annulment is successful it will pave the way for others to follow suit.

Marquess fears a chilling effect if he's successful.

``What happens then when adopted children are disgruntled for whatever reason? . . . I say disgruntled, certainly not abused as Michael said he was,'' she said. ``. . . We are a litigious society, and I think we are litigious about things we don't need to be litigious about.''

Chalek is beyond litigious. He's writing a book and is showing no signs of letting this chapter of his life rest easily.

``I have covered every inch in this,'' he said. ``I am going all out with this.''

Oklahoma legislative task force on adoption completes work

Oklahoma legislative task force on adoption completes work | NewsOK.com

Adult adoptees in OK appreciate the work Representative Nelson has done in ensuring better financial over sight in adoption. It was gravely needed, based on the findings of this Oklahoma Grand Jury investigation . Interestingly enough, the task force consisted mostly of those who make their living in the business of adoption.

Six U.S. states have passed legislation restoring the UNCONDITIONAL human right of adult adoptees to access their original birth certificate. The legislation recently passed in both Maine and New Hampshire, for example, is strongly supported by The Child Welfare League of America. The states that have passed this legislation, as well as the Tennessee Supreme Court, determined that birth parents were never guaranteed "perpetual anonymity" under the law. Sealed records were not even enacted until the 1940's to protect newly formed adoptive families, not birth parents. Mothers were given no choice but to relinquish their children under sealed records laws, and a whopping 97-99% WANT to know where their child is. "Birth parent privacy" is a myth of the adoption industry. In fact, mother's who surrendered their babies for adoption are also asking for records to be unsealed. Kansas has never sealed obc's of adult adoptees. Abortion rates do not go up, and adoption rates do not go down in states which have done the right thing and restored the dignity and rights of adult adoptees.

In state law now, a Judge can open adoption records for "just cause". Adding any mention of "birth parent privacy" into the law is a farce, because state after state is realizing that it didn't/doesn't exist. If a birth mother relinquishes her child for adoption, but for some reason the child is not legally adopted and lives in foster care, for example, their original birth certificate is never sealed from them.

The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute has an excellent report on their website entitled "For the Records" which explains this issue in depth. This is a civil rights issue for millions of adoptees in America. There is more work to do.

In the task force meeting, it was made to sound as if the intent in the new bill would be that a Judge should always determine the adult adoptee's right to obtain their records as a right that outweighs "privacy rights" of a birth parent.

We tried to explain that:

1) Adoptee's don't request medical records of a birth parent ~ they request their OWN original birth certificate or adoption file, and

2) In states that have passed unconditional access legislation, it has been found that "birth parent privacy" rights is a myth, because birth parents did not ask for, nor were they promised "perpetual anonymity" under the law.)

However, the language that made it to Oklahoma Senate Bill 510 was this:

I. In consideration of a request for the disclosure of birth-parent medical records to an adult adoptee, the court shall authorize the disclosure of such records only if the rights of the adult adoptee outweigh the privacy rights of the birth parent.

Every other American citizen has the right to obtain their original birth certificate, and adoptee's should have that right restored also.

We are thankful that the OK Legislature commissioned the OK Adoption Review Task Force and that it was open to the public. They heard the voices of adult adoptees, first parents, and adoptive parents who attended the meetings, and SB 510 will help to provide better recording and financial oversight in OK adoptions.

The author of the bill and several other legislators we've spoken with understand the issue of adoptee's accessing their records in adulthood, and have agreed to remove the language. The OK Adoption Code currently allows a Judge to grant adoptee access to their file/obc with "just cause", and until OK joins the growing list of states who pass true Adoptee Access legislation, it is better than the language recommended from the task force.

•Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963 ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Civil Right

A Civil Right: Adoptees Should Have Access to Their Birth Certificates
Posted by: Adam Pertman, Executive Director, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
Posted: January 12, 2011 10:54 AM

At the beginning of the 1900s, grim predictions punctuated the debate over women's suffrage. Everyone in the family unit would be damaged in innumerable ways if this outrage were allowed to happen, argued the critics, some of whom went so far as to predict the end of civilization itself.

Half a century later, another historic social change was in the offing, and the warnings of impending disaster were at least as dire. Indeed, some opponents of the movement to extend civil rights to people of color in our country were so sure that personal and social ruin were lurking around the corner that they fought with filibusters, nooses and guns to maintain the status quo.

Forecasting the future evidently is a difficult thing to do. Looking back is obviously easier, and it leads to two unambiguous conclusions. First, whether the effort is to give women the vote, provide African-Americans with equal rights, create access for people with disabilities -- or level the playing field for any other discriminated-against segment of the population -- there will be nay-sayers who insist that horrible things will occur if the sought-after change is allowed to transpire. Second, they will be wrong.

No, this is not a commentary about "don't ask, don't tell" or any other gay rights issue, though the identical observations would certainly apply. Rather, it's about providing legal and moral equality for a segment of our population that is not generally perceived as deprived of any rights: the approximately 7 million Americans who were adopted into their families. And the right denied to most of them is so basic that it almost sounds like a joke: access to their own original birth certificates.

There are lots of reasons that adopted people want the same documents, containing the same information, that the rest of us take for granted. Some have medical motives, including individuals who need a matching organ or information about an inherited disease; others want to know about their heritage or genealogy (anyone remember Alex Haley?) or why their eyes are green or what their original names were; and many yearn to see the faces of the women and men who gave them life.

At the bottom line, however, those are not the reasons it should matter to everyone that adopted people, on reaching the age of majority, cannot automatically obtain their own original birth certificates like the rest of us. We should care, and we should feel outraged, for the same reason so many men supported suffrage for women and so many white Americans joined the civil rights struggle -- because we should find it offensive when any minority group in society is deprived of equal rights.

Here's where the nay-sayers come in. Honest-to-goodness, the following are among the consequences they say will occur if state legislatures give adult adoptees the right to access their original birth certificates: The number of adoptions in our country will fall, the number of abortions will rise, the lives of women who were promised lifelong anonymity when they placed their children for adoption will be ruined and, yes, adoption itself will be in peril.
Research in the field, including by the independent, nonpartisan think tank that I head, refutes or calls into serious question every one of those claims; here you can read the latest report on the subject.

Equally important, this is not a guessing game or a social experiment. During the last decade, more than a half-dozen very diverse states in terms of geography and politics -- from Oregon to Alabama to Maine -- have done what the nay-sayers warned them not to do, and two states -- Alaska and Kansas -- never sealed these documents, as most of the nation did in the last century. Guess what calamitous fallout there has been in these states.

None.

Will some people face difficult or unexpected situations, or even get hurt, as a result of extending this right from coast to coast? Almost certainly, but we know from research, experience and official statistics (in the above states) that the numbers of those adversely affected will be tiny -- and we should do all we can for them by taking steps such as providing public notice, offering counseling, and giving women who placed their children for adoption the ability to officially declare if they do not want to be contacted.

Is this issue as important as women's rights or civil rights or disability rights or gay rights? Maybe or maybe not, but it's not a contest to see which group should get rights and which should not. Besides, this much is certain: Every additional day, month and year that original birth certificates remain sealed, some more adoptees and birth parents who want or need to find each other will give up instead, and some more will die, without ever filling the hole in their hearts.

So it sure does feel important to the people who are deprived. And if we understand that it's about equality and social justice for another group of Americans -- 7 million of them -- maybe we'll feel it, too.

Adam Pertman is Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and author of "Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming Our Families - and America," which is scheduled for release in April and has been reviewed as "the most important book ever published on the subject."