NAM/MNAAM Day 28,: A Couple Reading Suggestions

NAM/NAAM 2025 is winding down, and so am I. I will be so glad when this is over for political and personal reasons. I have things to do today that are going to take more time than I think, so I’m going to toss out a couple of reading suggestions.

I have been out of the loop, since only this month I discovered The Imprint. a non-profit, independent daily newsletter filled with news. opinion, and podcasts “dedicated to covering child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health and educational issues faced by vulnerable children and families.” I’m working on a couple of long blogs taken from articles I found there. The publication has quite a few positive articles and commentary about the adoptee rights movement and record access and covers passage of OBC laws in several states, including New York, Minnesota, and Georgia which I will add to the Bastard Nation site in the next few days. I don’t see anything about baby boxes–yet.

Here is a book I read a couple of months ago, American Infanticide: Sexism, Science, and The Politics of Sympathy by Clara Lewis. a senior lecturer a Dartmouth. I really looked forward to the then-upcoming book after hearing Prof. Lewis’ testimony against Connecticut’s Safe Haven Baby Box bill, SB1310. The bill was put on the backburner and died.

Pro Lewis covers the legal, intellectual, and social history of maternal filicide in the US starting in the Colonial era. The sad and absurd truth is that nothing much has changed in 350 years. Archaic myths, risks, and outcomes prevail, because…well.surprise, .. cultural, religious, and societal misogyny are the root causes of neonaticide, (Ok I’ve simplified it, but you get the idea) maintaining a culture where women and babies pay the consequences. This is an uncomfortable read, but well worth it. I hope the Laken Snelling defense team reads it. Her well-publicized case is one of the latest in centuries long refusal to understand the complex multi-stage process of pregnancy and the poor treatment of women. Baby boxes and adoption are a comfortable way out only for those who don’t want to face reality or think that Jesus will fix it with their help (of course!)

On a personal note, the anti-abortion Live Action News declared Prof Lewis and I “anti-life elitists for ” our work against Safe Haven Baby Boxes. It’s an honor!

I need to update the Bastard Nation Reading Room list, but there is already a lot there. Be sure to check out The Bastard Chronicles: An Anthology: 20 Years of Adoptee Equality Activism in the U.S. and the Birth of a Bastard Nation: Nation, Bastard. edited by long-time BN ExeCom member Emm Paul and Adoption Politics; Bastard Nation and Ballot Initiative 58 by Dr, E Wayne Carp.

A reading list on Safe Haven Baby Boxes is here.

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