Spring into Adoptee Rights
Recently, there have been several state legislative flurries of activity surrounding Adoption Law. How active is your State in securing Adult Adoptee rights?
Greetings!
Are you as anxious to have your adoptee rights restored as I am? I anticipate the day I'll finally receive my original birth certificate from South Carolina. Thirty years ago, I became aware that the Certificate of Birth and Baptism issued to my adoptive parents in Rock Hill, SC when I was one year old -- that they used during my dad's military career as the sole civil and church document of my identity -- had ceased to be a legal document when I became an adult. At age forty, I was informed by South Carolina State officials that I was not entitled to the true record of my birth. The names of my natural mother and father were sealed to my adoptive parents and to me. After the fairytale Dad told me at age six revealing I had lost my mother, my origins were never again mentioned -- not even in speculation.
It was the point of no return. I knew I must pursue my true identity and the documents that established it. Not only was I curious to learn my mother's family name, but I also wanted to meet her; to hug her -- if I were not too late.
My search and the moment we reunited are etched in my memory. She died the following year, but her SC death certificate will be my passport in May 2023 to obtain what should have been mine all my life -- my original birth certificate, and the right to be treated equally under the law to non-adoptees.
During my search, my natural father's identity didn't much enter my mind. Like too many adoptees, perhaps especially from the "Baby Scoop Era", from post-World War II into the 1970s, when unmarried mothers were coerced to relinquish their newborns to their State because it was the loving thing to do, I didn't tread into the world of what happened, but only glimpsed into the ghost world where my lost mother and kin resided.
Read the book by Karen Wilson-Buterbaugh, The Baby Scoop Era: Unwed Mothers, Infant Adoption, and Forced Surrender https://www.amazon.com/Baby-Scoop-Era-Adoption-Surrender-ebook/dp/B074T7HCMG
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I keep updated through posts by Adoptees United.org:
"We track and monitor adoptee rights legislation in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US Congress. If a pending or recently enacted bill relates to the rights of adult adopted people in the United States, we will list it." link to Map and Bill Descriptions Color Key (some bills are awaiting final implementation or have carried over from 2022 to 2023). Legislative maps and bill analysis for prior years are available for 2021 and 2022. [Overview of state-level legislation that impacts adult adopted people in the United States.]
(From A.U. website)
Core Issues
1) Pre-Adoption Original Birth Certificates POSITION: ADULT ADOPTED PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES HAVE THE RIGHT TO REQUEST AND OBTAIN UNALTERED COPIES OF THEIR OWN ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATES (OBC), WITHOUT DISCRIMINATORY CONDITIONS.
2) U.S. Citizenship for Intercountry Adoptees POSITION: ANY PERSON WHO IS OR HAS BEEN LEGALLY ADOPTED BY U.S. CITIZEN PARENTS SHALL AUTOMATICALLY ACQUIRE U.S. CITIZENSHIP. Adult adopted people must be treated equally under U.S. law. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of people legally adopted by U.S. citizen parents lack U.S. citizenship, despite legal entry to the United States and life-long residency in the country...
Adoptees United commits to work as a strong ally with intercountry adoptees and with established intercountry adoptee organizations. Adoptees United supports closing the date-based loophole in the Child Citizenship Act. U.S. Congress must pass legislation to grant all intercountry adoptees automatic citizenship, regardless of an adoptee’s age.
3) Identity Documents POSITION: ADOPTED PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES MUST BE TREATED EQUALLY TO ALL OTHER PEOPLE IN THEIR ABILITY TO SECURE NECESSARY DOCUMENTS FOR IDENTIFICATION, INCLUDING US PASSPORTS, STATE-ISSUED DRIVERS’ LICENSES, AND STATE AND FEDERALLY ISSUED IDENTIFICATION CARDS.
Adoptees United reaffirms the core principle that a full and equal right to identity applies to all adopted persons, whether adopted domestically or transnationally. Adoptees United commits to working with state and national organizations to ensure that adopted persons in the United States are treated equally to all other persons in securing needed identity documents, particularly securing U.S. passports, obtaining state-issued identification, or complying with documentation needed as part of the implementation of the REAL ID Act of 2005.
Additional Issues
4) Abortion Rights (excerpt) POSITION: A RIGHT TO SAFE AND LEGAL ABORTIONS MUST BE DEFENDED AND PROTECTED. As an organization deeply committed to equality for all people, Adoptees United supports and believes in a person’s inherent fundamental right to identity and autonomy. Our organization specifically and unequivocally endorses the right of women and pregnant people to secure safe and legal abortions throughout the United States.
Please Support Adoptee Rights
The Caffreys: my adoptive heritage. Dad said Catholic Charities matched me to him, an Irishman. I'm mainly Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish, and German for good measure. Many of us truth-seekers learn by DNA ancestry, and years earlier, a breach of identifying records enabled me.
My friend, Kathleen, whom I met on Facebook, shared with us the prose poem below. Like me, she was in the Rock Hill, SC St. Philip's Infant Home. By the time she was admitted into care, I had left with my new parents. Maybe she was given my empty crib... Her verse is about how we assume the heritage of our adoptive parents.
Lost Heritage
A New Family
A New Name Kathleen Mary
No longer Baby Sherry
When Irish Eyes are Smiling
McNamara’s Band
Bing Crosby. On the Record player.
Irish Heritage was in the names and faces around me.
It was to be a part of my life and my culture.
But was it really? Growing up knowing I was adopted made me question my origins.
With the advent of DNA testing
Came the truth
I am 51 percent Scottish.
Have you had the chance to read my #adoptionstories?
I'm grateful for another five-star customer review on Amazon, BookBub, Goodreads, and more! Chelsie S.
"Very eye-opening read about adoption, military life, and finding oneself in that all. Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2023 How does one live when they don't know who they are, or where they came from? To some this may not matter at all but to a lot of us, this is what helps build us as a person, our personalities, our characteristics, and at times what we search out in life. In this memoir, Mary Ellen explains a lot of this from the perspective of an adopted, military child and adult. Not only did she have no feeling of belonging, but she was also bounced from place to place and city to city. Hardly having time to create any sort of connection to build a friendship during her most impressionable years. I loved that Mary Ellen took the time to put her story down for others to read for connection, understanding, and guidance. I learned a lot from her sharing her life, and feel I do have a better understanding of the perspective of an adopted person and how untethered they can feel. I was quite flabbergasted at how hard it is to obtain records on yourself in a situation such as this and the walls that are often thrown in front of them with excuse after excuse for why they cannot access information, on themselves! At times her story was heartbreaking but that is what I loved about this novel, she laid it all out for us, all the good, ugly, and bad. I highly recommend this memoir to anyone who likes reading about others' lives, background on adoption and adoptees, and military life."
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I hope your spring is beautiful and happy!