Comments

• Mr. Snyder ~~ I trust you have been following the discussion over the past few days and have a better understanding of the truth of the matter now. Adopted persons deserve clean, unfettered access to their original birth certificates, just like every other citizen of NJ and the U.S. I challenge you to go back to the NJ Bar and advise them to do the right, ethical thing -- support the disenfranchised in their righteous fight for equality! Think about it -- how would you feel if you learned tomorrow that you, too, were adopted?
  in Listeners Respond: Birth Certificates and Adoption
  Thursday August 05, 2010, 08:08 AM
• Erich from Brooklyn ~~ Yes, I am a mother who lost her daughter to adoption in 1964 and I absolutely believe that all citizens of the U.S. should have access to their personal information and that adopted persons should not be discriminated against. As a search angel, I have facilitated over 150 reunions in the last year and a half, and I can document that over 95% of the mothers (or birth families in the case where mothers are deceased) are delighted to be found and eager to know their children. These statistics can be verified easily by doing a little research. Not all adoptees will want to avail themselves of the privilege of getting their birth certificates. That's their right and their personal business. The point is, it should not be denied. Last time I looked, the denial of a civil right (OBC) to a class of people (adopted) that is available to every other citizen who is not a member of that class was unconstitutional. That's it, in a nutshell.
  in Adoptees Fight for Access to Original Birth Certificates
  Monday August 02, 2010, 05:08 PM
• Here is an open letter I wrote to the Catholic Church on the issue of restored birth certificates for adoptees; the arguments are apropos to present to the NJ Bar and the ACLU *** I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that made me think of your curious stance in legislatures around the country in opposition to restoring access to original birth certificates (OBCs) to adopted persons. I should say, frankly, your unfathomable opposition — in particular, your reliance on the ungrounded argument that abortions will somehow increase if mothers are not promised forever anonymity and ‘privacy’ from the shame of bearing an out-of-wedlock child. Come on! Get real! In the 21st century you insist there are pregnant girls so frightened of being ‘outed’ they will run and get abortions before relinquishing their babies for adoption??? This is so ridiculous and ludicrous that it makes the mind boggle. And you keep bringing this up year after year, in every legislative hearing, even after we have produced piles of studies from states that have restored OBCs that a) the abortion rate has actually gone down and b) the only reason domestic adoptions have slowed is because more girls are opting to raise their babies with more family and society support to keep families together. You also insist that mothers were somehow promised confidentiality, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. We’ll say it again and keep shouting it until you hear it: There were no promises given to any mother except the threat of criminal prosecution if she ever tried to interfere in the life of her baby and its new family. For every woman who comes forward and asks for anonymity, we can bring you hundreds more, if not thousands, who begged for some assurance from the social workers and nuns, and were ‘promised’, that their children would be told about them and could find them some day. None of these so-called promises are in writing and, in fact, they were all lies. The adopters and their minions, the social workers and adoption lawyers, told the mothers whatever they wanted to hear to pry their babies away and get them to sign the relinquishment. Today, adopted persons in most of the civilized world and in six states of the U.S. are able to get their original documents and learn their names and heritage and genealogy. Many of your fellow churches are in full support of righting the unequal treatment remaining in the U.S. states which still bar adoptees from accessing their OBCs —a blatant discrimination in that OBCs are and always have been available to every other citizen who was not adopted. So, would Jesus discriminate? Of course not! Why do you? Priscilla Sharp (Mother of Loss '64/Search Angel/Adoptee Rights Advocate)
  in Adoptees Fight for Access to Original Birth Certificates
  Monday August 02, 2010, 08:08 AM