 President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate in the Briefing Room of the White House April 27, 2011 in Washington, DC. Adam Pertman: If the president's birth certificate is so hugely important, when do adopted people get to see theirs?ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today's six OFF-SET questions is Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a national nonprofit that is the pre-eminent research, policy and education organization in its field.  Pertman – a former Pulitzer-nominated journalist – is also Associate Editor of Adoption Quarterly, a research journal dealing with adoption and foster care. He is the author of the just-published book, "Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming Our Families – and America." CLICK HERE to visit Pertman's blog. The White House released President Barack Obama's original long-form birth certificate Wednesday, seeking to put an end to persistent rumors that he was not born in the United States. What does the release of the certificate mean to those of you who work in the adoption community? The most pointed message was for adopted people, who are the only group in America who are legally prohibited from accessing their own original birth certificates. If that document is so hugely important – to quote my tweet on the subject – when do they get to see theirs? I hope one ray of sunshine that emanates from this bizarre birther controversy is that it shines a light on the access issue. Adoptees shouldn’t be punished simply because of how they entered their families. There's a U.S. Government web site on which the Surgeon General urges all Americans to create famiily health histories. What special challenges does this initiative pose to families who adopt? Adopted people are the only group in America who cannot get their basic information (i.e., original birth certificates) as a matter of course. It’s not a level playing field for them – morally, legally or medically. The laws governing this are dinosaurs, relics of a time when adoption was shrouded in secrecy, stigma and shame. Let’s get rid of the dinosaurs and the special challenges – how to gain access to one’s own information – will get far easier. Then everyone will have the opportunity to get healthier, physically and psychologically.  If you could change any legislation dealing with adoption today, what would you change? Well, if I’m dreaming, I’d come up with a bill that’s broad and sweeping, so that all the kids who need homes will get them, all the families that are struggling will get the support they need to succeed, all the teachers and doctors and mental-health professionals who are dealing with adoption without training finally receive it, and all the tens of millions of people who are affected by adoption daily will get better lives. Can we please file that legislation today? After the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, thousands of children became orphans and the adoption situation became complicated and controversial. There were reports of children who were brought to the U.S. who may still have had families in Haiti. There are also reports of orphans who are still in federal custody here, awaiting adoption. Do you have an idea of how many Haitian children have been adopted in the U.S. since the quake, if there are kids who still need adopting–and what American adults should do if they think they want to adopt? Just over 1,000 children from Haitihave been adopted in this time frame. It was a messy situation after the quake, with lots of good intentions and ill-informed practices. Moving kids in the middle of being traumatized is not necessarily good timing, and good intentions don’t necessarily amount to best practices. Today, it’s getting better; best thing to do is contact a reputable adoption agency. Japan seems like a different situation–that Japanese authorities want to keep orphaned children in their communities if possible. Is that right? Out-of-family placement of children isn’t part of many national cultures – including that of Japan. There’s no reason to think that, just because there’s a disaster, the affected children need to be adopted by people in other countries. It’s absolutely a solution for some, but we need to be sure the kids really don’t have relatives close to home and we must take the country’s specific circumstances into account. Are there current figures on the number of American children who need adoption? This question may be highly-emotional, politically-charged or just ignorant–especially because any child in need is a child in need–but is it easier to adopt a child from overseas than it is to adopt a child born in the U.S.? About one-fifth of the half-million children in foster care in our country are legally free for adoption – and, yes, they need permanent and loving families. Good news: people are stepping up in unprecedented numbers and so adoption from foster care is now the largest type of adoption in theU.S. Easier to adopt from abroad? It depends on too many factors; people should be able to form their families however they decide is best for them. And, as you say, every child in need is a child in need – and there’s no good purpose served in making them compete with each other. Let’s shape policies that help them all. You have said that "The Internet and adoption is like the Wild West." Who is paying attention to possible Internet abuses? What should parents considering adoption be aware of when the visit a web site? Another important, big question. No one is really monitoring the internet for abuses, best practices or impact on vulnerable people – that’s true in adoption as in other realms. There are unethical, unscrupulous or simply uneducated people doing adoption practices that are, shall we say, less than the best? And there are people searching for birth relatives (generally a good thing) without counseling or good information or even without telling their parents – i.e., young children finding biological family members. The Adoption Institute that I head has just started the first-ever, research-based project in an effort to better inform us all and shape best practices. This needs to get done vitally or the Wild West – which also will have beneficiaries for sure – will also have too many victims. |
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Thanks Adam as always for talking about the necessity for access and to bring this to people attention, and for working on adoption reform in a broader sense. I find it interesting, that only the people that have access to THEIR information are the ones who always tell us (I am also an adoptee) that we don't have the right to have our information. My information is a matter of my history and being able to feel grounded, and that of my children and my children's children.
The common misconception is that the rights adoptees seek – to access their own authentic birth certificates – are NEW rights. As a matter of fact, what they seek is restoration of rights that were theirs prior to the 1940s but were stripped from them in order to propagate an illusion of adoptees' being "born to" their adoptive parents. In 1949, the U.S. Children's Bureau, precursor of today's Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), stated the following:
"It is very important that the child’s original birth certificates be identified so that his complete birth record will be available to him when needed.
"The right to inspect or to secure a certified copy of the original birth certificate of an adopted child should be restricted to the registrant, if of legal age; or upon court order. "
You can read these here: http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/archive/UscbTCNOBR.htm
Adoption policy and practice have long since abandoned the "as if born to" philosophy. It's time to reinstate the absolute rights to original birth certificates for ALL adoptees.
As an adoptee, I am one of thousands of US-born citizens who does not have access to my original birth certificate. Out-dated state laws exist that are keeping our adoption records "sealed" – even from the children (now adults) they intended to protect. Maybe we (adoptees) should all just file for president!
This is a subject I am very uneducated on. I ask these questions, just to try and learn. If adpoted chidlren could get thier origional birth certifcate, would it not reveal the name of birth parents? I would imagine that if I were adopted I'd want to know the names and family background but don't the birth parents have some right to remain unknown if that is thier wish? How do you balance the desires and rights of the child with those of the birth parents?
Blynn,
This is s subject that has been long debated. For 10 years I facilitated an adopted-life support group that met twice a month. Let me share some things I learned.
1)The birthmother signs away the rights to her child during a process that is called relinquishment, if the relinquished child is never placed for adoption then he or she reaches adulthood with the original birth certificate.
2)The birthparents are never guaranteed privacy because that is impossible, who can guarantee that? Actually there is very little privacy in our lives: if, while driving, you run into a ditch trying to avoid a deer your name is likely to be released in the police report of your local news paper; when an adopted person gets his or her original birth certificate the information is not made public, it is only known to the parties concerned.
3) The adopted person, if they decide to make contact can be requested to make no further contact, this is between two adults. In the ten years I facilitated an adopted-life support group only two birth mothers refused contact.
3)The adopted person may have medical needs for themselves or their children that need to be met. Even with the availability of genetic information the anecdotal information from blood relations is invaluable. Often families do not want contact with each other but they are given the option to help or not; for an adopted person there is no option.
4) Actually search is quite healthy for an adopted person. Search is the only way an adoptee can own their place in the adoption, the birthparents make a plan, even if it's to make no plan at all; the adoptive parents make a plan and loose all their privacy in the process; the adoptee, who up until the time they search acts in a void of information, has no other place but to bring it full circle and connect the parties to the adoption.
5) Ask yourself who really benefits from lack of accountability between parties to an adoption? The answer: people who can profit from that very lack of accountability. Sealed records are much more likely to be about corrupt adoption practices than birthparent confidentiality.
6) Adoption is supposed to be in the best interests of the child. Imagine for yourself, how you would feel about government and familial ties if the very origins of your self were denied to you; the sealed record is counter intuitive to good social adaptation.
7) Now with the issue of having to produce a long form birth certificate, which is sealed at the time of adoption, imagine the pause that a birthmother might feel when she realizes that the child she is relinquishing will be excluded from US Presidential aspirations, imagine being an adoptive parent and explaining to your child that the sealed record limits just how high their child can aim. The child must give up before he even begins.
I hope this gives you some insight into the issues of sealed records.
Nicely explained Abigail! I believe a birth mother and the adopted adult can decide if they want to communicate, and how they wish to do that. Just like any other relationship, the adults get to choose what they want to do and this situation should be no different.
Thank you also for speaking up about your experiences.
I am a birth mom (or first mother) that 36 yrs ago I was 16 and had to put my daughter up for adoption. Unfortunately, the adoption attorney (Seymour Fenichel) was involved in the black market, and while the adoption records are sealed for purposes intended, many adoptees & birth parents are searching for each othr. We are held back from records being opened due to the ancient laws still in effect prohibiting the open records or allowing the adoptee to have their original birth certificates.
Perhaps this forum would like to join our efforts as we have done so through Face book and other national postings (NY POST) to help us in this cause. If it takes an act of congress such as with Obamas certificate, we need all the support we can get. Will someone reply to me so I can connect you with our groups on FB?
I am another birthmother who supports equal access to original birth certificates(OBC's) for adopted persons. I have belonged to every group I could possibly join over my 21 yrs of networking with others in the adoption community and would be happy to know of a few more. It is right and just. Who better has a right to this information than the person concerned?
Thank you for insight, Abigail. I really learned a lot from that. What happens if an adpoted person wanted to run for President? Would they be held from that because of the birth certificate issue? I'm certain that if I were adopted, I'd search and want to know myself. Still, I can't help but wonder if adopted children are given birth certficates with birth parents names on, are we going to have young woman who will choose to end a pregnancy instead of putting the baby up for adoption out of fear of being "found" some day. I like to think that is far fetched but it is something that concerns me. I just wonder if we won't have young ladies who, for whatever reason might not want it known they gave a baby up for adoption and knowing that the child will be given thier name, maybe they will just decide not to carry to term.
No, abortions do not increase, and this has already been proven in states that have already changed the laws and now allow adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates. In fact, in some states abortions even decreased.
Groups opposed to adult adoptees being able to obtain a copy of their OBC have claimed (incorrectly) that abortions will rise, and that is just plain not true.
In 42 states adopted persons are denied their original birth certificates. When will they get theirs?
Thank you for some other informative blog. Where else could I get that kind of information written in such a perfect approach? I've a mission that I'm just now working on, and I've been at the glance out for such information.