Many natural parents are working actively in the United States in open records campaigns that will open the records for adoptees. I discovered how one-sided this was in 2001, when I became involved in a natural mothers group and I suggested a page on open records for their website, I was shocked when the group leader told me that open records were not part of their agenda, but were “an adoptee issue.” In further discussion, I discovered that she was not aware of the idea of open records for natural parents, assuming that “open records” were for adoptees only, whereas I had assumed that open records naturally meant for both parties. When I explained how the open records system works where I live, she was enthusiastic about lobbying for it.
Denying natural parents and adoptees the identifying information (given names and surname) that would permit them to find their lost family members only perpetuates the shroud of shame and secrecy that covers adoption. There is no justification for preventing those who have been separated by adoption from receiving information regarding the family they have lost. In most government offices, original birth certificates are cross-referenced with amended (falsified) post-adoption birth certificates so it shouldn’t be difficult for both to be accessible to mothers and to their children. Not only that, but the names of the adoptive parents need not be released.
Industry lobby groups such as the National Council for Adoption (NCFA) promote the myth that closed records are there to protect us from our lost children and that we were promised “confidentiality” when we signed. Nothing could be further from the truth. History shows that records were mainly closed to protect adoptive families from natural parents (see "How Adoption Grew Secret in America") by Elizabeth Samuels), not the other away around. As well, no known surrender form has promised confidentiality to any surrendering mother (see Mothers for Open Records Everywhere (MORE)), and it is well-known in contract law that verbal promises are only worth the paper they are printed on.
The closed records system treats adopted adults as property and treats exiled mothers as criminals with permanent restraining orders imposed, serving a lifelong sentence of involuntary exile from our children. In no other area of life is such basic information withheld from adults who are innocent of any crime. Our adult children are capable of making their own decisions regarding relationships with us. Both adult adoptees and their natural parents should have the right to make choices and decisions regarding their relationships in the same way as the rest of the population takes for granted. After all, let’s not forget Freedom of Association, a principle underpinning all of Western democracy.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Footnote: (*) I use the original term “natural mother” rather than the term “birthmother” as I believe that we are more than just incubators. The term “birthmother” was coined by social workers in United Kingdom maternity prisons in the 1950’s to replace the term “natural mother.” It was further promoted by social workers in the United States in the 1970’s. This word was coined to define us as having been mothers at the time of birth but not after, and thus to diminish us to having a solely reproductive purpose in our children’s lives. In order to sell adoptive parents on the idea of adoption providing them “a child of their own,” social workers must first eliminate our motherhood in their clients’ eyes.
