This morning Bastardette received an email about the newly formed BirthParent* Project, headed by long time adoptee and birthparent rights activist Mirah Riben with the assistance of Carole Whitehead.
This is a long-needed project. The National Council for Adoption as well as the ACLU (see Bastardette’s April 24 blog ACLU slags adoptees again, Right to Life and other well-heeled anti-adoptee lobbies have long argued that open records (i.e. the right of adopted persons to access their own birth records and heritage) break promises made by the state to never reveal the identities of women who relinquish their children to adoption–even though in over 25 years none of these adoption industrialists has been able to present one single legal document that makes any such promise. The fact is that records are sealed at the time of adoption finalization, not at the termination of parental rights, so there is no way anybody could make such a promise, since there is no “promise” that the baby will be adopted. If the child is never adopted, then the records remain open and available for anyone to read. For a detailed rundown on why there can be no such thing as anonymity in adoption (unless of course, you dump and run under the safe haven scam) go to “Do Birth Parents Have a Right to Privacy?” in The Basic Bastard
Bastardette urges every birthparent to participate in this ground breaking work. Let your voices be heard. Tell the adoption industry and its lackeys that you won’t let them hide behind your skirts, speak for you, or “protect” you from your own children. And certainly that you do not share the agenda of secrets, shame, lies. and female degradation.
Adoptees are not second class citizens whose rights should be denied based on their adoptive status and birthparents do not need the “special right” of state protection.
Here is the email:
>The BirthParent* Project
href=http://www.birthparentproject.org/survey/public/survey.php?name=BPP has been created to:
>1) Collect statistical data to present to lawmakers debating equal access
>legislation, and to the media
>2) Collect copies of actual surrender papers to see what indeed was “promised”
>3) Determine specifically and conclusively what birthparents asked for, or
>were promised, regarding having their identity kept secret from their
>offspring, and,
>4) See to it that the truth of birthparents’ wishes, in regard to adoption
>records, are made known.
>Nationwide, state-by-state, adults who were adopted as children are
>fighting to regain the right to their own birth and medical
>records. Sealed adoption records deny this one class of citizens the same
>rights as all other non-adopted citizens.
>But, it is much more profitable for baby brokers to keep adoption cloaked
>in secrecy, and so this basic civil right has long been challenged by paid
>lobbyists for the NCFA. Lacking any logical justification for this
>discrimination, they fabricate LIES, claiming that somehow to restore the
>rights of adult adoptees violates promises THEY allege were made to
>birthparents. They additionally falsely claim that allowing equal access
>to adoption records would escalate abortions.
>Though totally unfounded and unsubstantiated, these lies have garnered
>support from organizations such as Right to Life, the ACLU, the Catholic
>Conference, and the Bar Association, all of which have campaigned against
>open records legislation.
>The time has come to set the record straight!
>THE GOAL is A MILLION BIRTHPARENTS FOR OPEN RECORDS!
>If you placed a child for adoption so that he/she could have a “better
>life” and believe that better life does NOT include being denied the SAME
>RIGHTS as non-adopted citizens…then STAND UP and be
>counted!
GO TO:
http://www.birthparentproject.org/survey/public/survey.php?name=BPP
>(click or cut and paste)
>and:
>1) Complete the SURVEY (the site is safe and secure)
>2) Send a copy of your surrender papers to [email protected]. If
>you are not able to scan them as a PDF file, email for FAX or postal
>mailing address.
>3) If you are a birthparent from New Jersey, please send an additional
>copy of your surrender papers to Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director,
>NJ-ACLU, P.O. Box 750, Newark, NJ 07101.
>NOTE: This is NOT a search registry, nor is it for the purposes of writing
>a magazine article or a thesis.
>(* The term BirthParent refers to parents who relinquish children to
>adoption. Also known as original, biological, first and/or natural
>parents, BirthParent is used here, because it is the most consistently
>used term for legal purposes. The term includes both mothers and fathers,
>and includes those who have knowingly, unknowingly, voluntarily and/or
>involuntarily have had their progeny placed for adoption.)
>
>The Birthparent Project was created by Mirah Riben, birthparent, author,
>and activist. BirthParentProject.org is solely owned and operated by Mirah
>Riben who, in conjunction with Carole Whitehead, birthparent and activist,
>are responsible for its contents. BPP is not affiliated with any groups
>or organizations and contact information will not be shared with any group
>or organization.
>
>
>THANK YOU.