Tuesday, January 30, 2007

POSTING ADOPTION NEWS STORIES

I post news stories to get others to read them. I want to point out to the non-adopted individual that there are problems with adoption. As my friend Wraith has pointed out, foster care adoption and step parent both allow access to their records. With the many many first parent blogs out there, their voices are beginning to become a roar. Soon it will become a deafening roar. As their stories are becoming more and more open and recorded. The outlandish things that groups like the NCFA and others say, the more that they prove them wrong.

I have been given an opportunity to help out with my birth state in creating laws for adoptee acess. I hope that I do it right. I am also planning on changing stuff with my home state. Adoptee access laws are becoming more and more prevalent. Its up to us to make our voices heard.

The statistics from Oregon are overwhelming. I found out today that adoptions are on the increase in Oregon. Up the last two years by ten percent. So open records cause adoptions to go down. Just look at Oregon. I bet their abortion statistics are down. From what I understand, they are down. So if Oregon can be a cause in point. Look at their laws - they opened their records for their adoptees. Allowed them unfetter access to their birth certificates. None of the horrors have occurred to them.

Privacy rules are hogwash. In our society, we place value on true kinship. Adoptees are left out in the cold. We are told to shut up and be grateful. We are told we were lucky that we weren't aborted or left in a dumpster. Those kind of comments dismiss our feelings. Those kind of comments discredit our first mothers severely. I know that 99% of Oregon first parents don't like to be thought of as throwing their kids away. Most did not have a choice in the matter even the older ones. If you were single and pregnant, oh you just shamed the family, society and yourself. That is incredible pressure to live under. Society still tries to disgrace women for having children outside of wedlock. That is why they push adoption so much. In Oregon, the court justices made their opinions clear. In abortion, parenting and contraception, women were exercising their right to privacy. With adoption, women are giving up their rights. This includes the right to privacy. Most did not want the right to privacy. Again the statistics speak volumes out of Oregon. If you are a state legislator visiting my site or the many other links, you can visit their website. The court justices also ruled that the right to privacy was about the right to be free from governmental intrusion. This includes the state governmental intrusion into adoptees lives. State governments are intruding on adoptees' right to make sound decisions about their lives. Adoptees are soldiers - there are two that I know of - myself and Wraith. We are parents of our children. We work hard at jobs both at home and a work environment. Yet somehow we are lesser because we are the forever children of adoption. Those same justices also said that no first parent has the fundamental right to put their children up for adoption; they also do not have the right to put their child up for adoption in anonymous circumstances. Evidence of this is when the adoption records are sealed. They are sealed at the time of the finalization, not when the relinquishment papers were signed. So there could not be any promise of privacy. They were told that they could not ever know their children. They were told to go on with their lives. Many still live under that fear and stigma. My own first mother does.

Adoptees have long since been stigmatized by these laws. It was the adoption agencies, adoptive parents, adoption attorneys, and the social workers that closed the records. We are being bound by decisions made about us for us. Upon the legal majority, we are still being treated like children. We are treated like ungrateful brats because we seek what is rightfully ours. A friend of mine refused contact with her first mother, yet I know that she would still like her original birth certificate. Her first mother has respected her decision. One day I hope she changes her mind. What we choose to do with our information is up to us. There are stalking and harassment laws that cover if we step out of line. All they and we have to do is file a contact preference form. We don't need laws that give first parents way too much control over our lives. Make adoption clean and honest again. It is up to you, our society, to do this. Adoption agencies, adoption attorneys, and their ilk should not be making the laws that define our existance. It is up to adoptees and their families to make these laws.

I know this to be a fact as well. They just want the product (adoptees), the money (the adoptive parents), and the first parents ( the producer) just for money and that is it. They don't care who they hurt in the process. We are just their profit.

Give us access to the birth certificates that factually record our birth.

3 comments:

Ungrateful Little Bastard said...

I have been given an opportunity to help out with my birth state in creating laws for adoptee acess. I hope that I do it right.

You will. You'll do it with heart and integrity and with everything you have in you. You care so deeply. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I'm LOVING the title of the commenter above! Gonna have to go check that one out.

GREAT post Amy. You are de' bom'. ULB is right, we are lucky to have you in our corner. I am going to read the one about the bar assoc. next. Great minds think alike!!!

Signed,
ANOTHER ungrateful little bastard.;o)

Rebecca said...

Amy, Thanks for posting adoption news stories. I come here to get caught up on what's going on. I just don't comment much. While I wasn't born or adopted here, I live in Oregon. In many ways we are a forward thinking state. Hopefully, others will follow our example. I think you will do a great job creating laws for your state for adoptees and access to their info. I'm behind you 100%. :) Rebecca