Infant Adoption in America is a Human Rights Issue
Parent's Guide to the "System" for parents and grandparents
Millions of women (and men) in the United States are subjected to violations of one of their most fundamental human rights for no other reason than that they are unmarried.  This fundamental right is the right to keep their own child.  Adoptees are also denied a fundamental right:  The right to know who they really are.

Infant Adoption 60's Style
Infant Adoption Today
Adoptee Human Rights

Infant Adoption 60's Style

The tactics used during the baby scoop era (1960s to mid-1970s) are well-known to people who remember that time.  Women were interred in maternity homes or sent to "wage homes" as a punishment for the crime of having a baby out of wedlock.   The legal term used for those in maternity homes was "inmates", clearing up any doubt on the intention of their confinement.   Many were refused contact with the outside and even with their unborn child's father. Most were provided no information about pregnancy or childbirth.  They were sent alone to the delivery room, with no support.  Many were allowed no contact with their child following birth.

They were provided no information about government programs that could have helped them through a temporary financial situation and no information about the known effects of separation of a mother and child. 

These tactics to obtain babies for adoption were utilized by the government and by adoption services providers with complete impunity.

The story told to those hoping to adopt was that the mothers had "chosen" adoption, that they did not want their babies, that the babies were orphans.

Infant Adoption Today

The rates of mothers surrendering parental rights have declined since the 1970s  due to the decreased stigma associated with single motherhood.  With this decline, the adoption industry has doubled it's efforts to obtain babies, especially healthy white infants from intelligent, educated mothers.  The use of shaming as a means to obtain babies has diminished, leading to a false sense that women's rights are being upheld.   However mothers are still being lied to about the effects of separation and legal risks.  Adoption, as it is being handled in the United States today, can hardly be considered a woman's choice.

Adoption: Exploitation or Choice?

We are inundated with advertising for adoption with no mention of the risks or ill-effects.

The promise of Open Adoption is being used as a "carrot" to lure in naive young mothers who might otherwise have kept their children.  The effects are often devastating. Read "Open Adoption: The Wall" and see what devastating effects open adoption may have on siblings and the entire natural family as well as the adoptee. 

Maternity homes are being reinstated so that mothers may be separated from society for "decision-making".  They are encouraged to choose people to adopt before they have a chance to think. Then they are pressured not to disappoint the people chosen by deciding to keep their own child.

Fathers are being shunted off to the side by the adoption industry and encouraged to sign away their parental rights before their child is even born.  Or, they are bypassed all together by means of the Putative Fathers Registries (which very few of them have ever heard of) or by the Safe Haven Laws.  

After hearing her whole life that "everyone benefits" from adoption, a mother is primed to think her child may be better off with someone else.

Child Protective Services get funding from the federal government based on getting kids into foster care and getting them adopted, ignoring relatives requests to care for them. (See Parent's Guide to the System for information on handling social services.)

But it is known that children do suffer ill effects from being separated from their true parents.  Adoptee Betty Jean Lifton's book  Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest For Wholeness should be required reading for everyone in America!

Adoptee Human Rights

With the people adopting insisting on retaining the illusion of being the real parents of the unrelated children they are raising, adoptees are being denied basic knowledge about themselves.  Who ARE they really?  Who are their ancestors and what is their health history? 

What is the point of keeping these secrets?  It's NOT in the best interests of the children nor in the best interest of adult adoptees to be treated as the property of their adopters.   A great many of the people who have adopted children agree that their adoptees deserve to have this information about themselves.  And nearly all moms whose children were adopted-out would love to know how their children are.  Yet the National Council For "Built Families" NCFA stands in the way.  Well, after all NFCA is not there to help anyone - they represent agencies which profit from the "sale" of children.

We must have justice for all adoptees. 

And in the future, no child should have her identity or any other information changed on her birth certificate and her own identity denied.
Must-Read Articles on Adoption and Foster Care
Adoption: America's Secret Crime Against the Family
by Jess Delbalzo
When a pregnant woman of any age chooses to give birth, she deserves to be counseled as a parent and a mother.
Read my story.

What protection is there for naive young parents today?  Nearly every adoption website easily accessable to the public is an advertisement for adoption.  These ads are not much of a basis for making an informed choice.

Please look at  this and the rest of my Adoption Considerations website, one of the few sources of information that someone might stumble upon that provides real insights into adoption.

The adoption industry should be required to provide such information.
Adoption: Exploitation or Choice?
by Laurie Frisch
Good News!  Funds allocated to help true families in Vancouver
Comparison Between Adoption practices in North America and in Australia

by Evelyn Robinson
Like-Minded Websites
Adoption Mothers Exploited By Adoption
Adoption OriginsUSA
Adoption Origins Canada
Adoption: Legalized Lies
Adoption crossroads.org
Adoption In Australia
Adopting Children (Back!)

Books -
Beggars and Choosers and more

Movies -
The Handmaid's Tale and more (reviewed by Ghostdancer)

The Magdalene Sisters (2003)  Based on real events that took place in Ireland from the 1960's until 1996.  See also the documentary included on the video/DVD.
"Only when the secrecy ends, will the crimes begin to stop as well. Even today, countless young men and women are coerced out of their children, left to suffer for a lifetime."
If you are a mother who lost her child to  adoption please sign the petition at Mothers For Open Records Everywhere.

Open Sealed Adoption Records.  No 'birthmother', 'birthmothers', 'birthparent', 'birthparents'  confidentiality was promised nor is it desired.
How can you help?

Provide the address for this website:

  (www.geocities.com/counting_to_ten/index2.html)

to friends, teachers, nurses, doctors, religious leaders, the media, lawmakers and others.   Ask them to educate themselves about the realities of adoption, to use honest language, to be honest and forthright about the realities of adoption and the benefits of keeping mothers and their children together, to open records for adoptees and to stop the exploitation of women and families.

More ideas and examples of letters to editors.

                                          Thank you!

Comments or questions? Contact LaurieFrisch

Human Rights and Social Policy on Adoption

Women's Reproductive Rights, Denial of Reproductive Rights, Conflicting Rights

Unplanned Pregnancy, Pregnant?

Open Adoption - The Truth about Open Adoption

Dear Birthmother, Birthmother Options, Adoption vs. Parenting

Adoption Search Support Groups


Celebrating Adoption, Birthmother's Day Celebration, Adoption Party

Open Adoption Birthmom Links

How Biased Positive Adoption Language Tears
Families Apart

Dear Birthparent - Is Open or Closed Adoption the Right Choice?

Open Adoption vs. Closed Adoption

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