Pennsylvania Adoptee Rights

Adoptee Rights, Family Medical History, and Disease Prevention: Listen in to PAR on WITF Radio This Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:01:00 +0000

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LISTEN IN! Missed it? Check out the Podcast
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 9:30 (ET) Amanda from Pennsylvania Adoptee Rights will be interviewed by the WITF SmartTalk Radio program (click to listen) about adult adoptees, family medical history, Adoptee Rights, and the state of all of these issues in Pennsylvania. WITF has a peticular interest in shedding light on issues surrounding cancer with their program Facing Cancer Together. Amanda will shed light on the issues of family medical history through her experience as an adult adoptee with a tumor and a family history of cancer as well as someone who is knowledgeable about many of the laws impacting adult adoptees in Pennsylvania. Here is a bit of what the show will cover for those unable to tune in or who caught part of the show and would like a re-cap.

Amanda's Story
Amanda is a reunited adult adoptee who was adopted through private, domestic, infant adoption through one of the largest adoption agencies in the United States. During this time, adoption workers were beginning to understand, from feedback from adoptees, original parents, and families of adoption, that there were many critiques of adoption policies that kept adoptees from their original information and from accessing original family members. But still at this time, openness and on-going communication and information-sharing between families was not the nature of adoption. Many thought that if the adoptee's original mother was healthy at the time of the adoptee's birth then the adoptee would not need medical history--they would be healthy too.

Unfortunately, this just wasn't true for Amanda. She was diagnosed with multiple allergies and asthma as a teenager. Later as a young adult, she discovered she had a rapidly growing but benign tumor in her jaw which needed surgery, putting her at significant risk of facial drooping and paralysis. Amanda has made a full recovery. She discovered when she reunited with her wonderful families in January 2009 that diseases such as type 2 diabetes are present in both her maternal and paternal families and that an extensive history of tumors and serious cancers exist in her paternal family medical history.

Amanda was born in a state that allows greater access to adult adoptees in regards to original information than Pennsylvania does. She is part of a small percentage of adult adoptees overall in the U.S. who has access to her original birth certificate and her uncensored adoption file.

Adoptee Rights and Family Medical History
Adoptee Rights refers to restoring the right of adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates the same way that all other citizens do. The issue of unequal access to birth certificates is generally a different and separate issue from the lack of family medical history; they are similar in that both issues are a product of the secretive nature of adoption.

Original birth certificate access is a matter of equality; adoptees have been denied the right to access a government document that the government recorded about the historical event of their birth, the same way, and for the same price as all other citizens born in PA. Not being able to access one's original birth certificate has also caused difficulty for some adoptees in obtainning passports, driver's licenses, and even security clearances for certain types of jobs. With the rise in demand for original birth certificate submission to be necessary to run for public office or to obtain an official ID for voting, this too stands to disenfranchise adult adoptees as a population.

Original birth certificate access does not, however, address the family medical history issue. Many people assume that OBC access means someone will be able to search and reunite or that medical history will be somewhere on the certificate. This is not accurate. Birth certificate access is about rights, not reunion, and adoptees are not likely to find any medical history on their original birth certificates should they recieve them.

A study of a sample of Oregon (a state that allows adult adoptees equal access to their original birth certificates) adult adoptees found that not all adult adoptees wanted their birth certificates to reunite. Of those who did, 47% of the sample were unsuccessful. The study determined that the majority of adult adoptees that accessed their original birth certificates to view the document as important to them (source: Rhodes, J., Barfield, W., Kohn, M., Hedberg, K., & Schoendorf, K. (2002). Releasing Pre-Adoption Birth Records: A Survey of Oregon Adoptees. Public Health Reports, 117(5), 463.)

Original birth certificate access is a matter of equality and it needs to be addressed in PA urgently. However, it will not meet the needs of those seeking reunion or those who need family medical history. Equality needs to be restored in addition to a separate and optional active registry service that helps re-connect the families of adoption so that they can reunite if desired or at least exchange on-going family medical history.

What About Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania is already about halfway there when it comes to this plan that provides for the rights and needs of adult adoptees and original parents with recent law changes that support more connection between original and adoptive families from adoptions going forward in adoption post March 2011 as well as by responding to inadequacies in the existing medical history registry. PA has addressed the medical history portion quite well while disappointingly leaving adoptee equality (birth certificate access) untouched.

The old Adoption Medical History Registry (AMHR) managed by the Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange (PAE) received over 2,500 requests from adult adoptees from 1997 when it ran until 2011 when it was replaced by Act 101 of 2010. Fewer than 800 original parents registered information. Ultimately under this system fewer than 10 matches were made.

Act 101 not only legally recognizes open adoptions in Pennsylvania but through it the Department of Public Welfare has streamlined the social history and family medical history registries. From adoptions finalized on or after the active date of the new law in March 2011, original parents are required to provide the new registry system with family medical history. The social and medical information collected has been expanded.

Adult adoptees from adoptions prior to March 2011 are also able to use these registries but it is unknown what the results will be. Few people in the overall adoption/adoptee community know that these registries exist and we've gotten feedback that some adoption agencies have not informed inquiring adoption members that the registry is a resource.

While PA has certainly improved as far as family medical history and open adoptions are concerned, they still have yet to restore the right of adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates the same way all other individuals born in PA do. HB 963, an adoptee equality bill, has been sitting in committee untouched. The bill's original form, HB 1978, met the same fate in the previous session. It is so important for every person who knows and loves an adoptee and wants equality and respect for adoptees in this state to stand together with us in support of this legislation. The old information registry by which adult adoptees could seek to obtain their original birth certificate via permission from their original parents who would place permission on file with the department of health has not been replaced and is as ineffective as the AMHR was:

The Biological Parent Registry has been in effect since 1985. It records only the consents placed on file by original parents but does not record how many adult adoptees sent in requests (nor how many times each individual adoptee needed to repeatedly inquire due to the lack of record-keeping of adoptee requests). From 1985 to 2010 when an inquiry about statistics was made by PAR, it was determined that 1,600 original parents placed permission on file. However, the Department of Vital Statistics did not record how many matches were made so how many adoptees were served through this registry is entirely unknown.

Thank you
A special thank-you to WITF for including PAR in their dialogue regarding health and cancer. WITF, rightfully so, has recognized that adult adoptees, as well as the original families who cannot benefit from the adoptee's medical history if they are unable to connect with one another, are a particularly vulnerable population when it comes to health if they do not have on-going access to updated medical history. We thank them for not only including adoptees in the discussion of health and disease prevention but for seeking out adult adoptees to speak about the adoptee community. It is always important for adoptees to speak about the adoptee community which unfortunately is not always the case when adoptee issues are featured in the media where others speak on our behalf. WITF should be commended for their thoughtfulness and awareness in handling this issue and discussion in a way that is inclusive and respectful.

For more information on accessing information in PA, check out our information page.

What About the Mothers? Dan Rather Reports on Forced Adoption in the 50's, 60's, and 70's in the U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:54:00 +0000

There's an important segment airing on Dan Rather Reports this evening on HDnet at 8PM (ET) that will soon-after be available for inexpensive purchase at iTunes. I felt it was important to let PAR supporters know about this very special report and here's why: people always ask Adoptee Rights activists "what about the mothers?" It is as if some people assume we walk into legislators offices and ask for our birth certificate access to be restored without having given a second thought to our original mothers or families and that OBC access somehow is intended to be ignorant to our very first parents. On the contrary, many original mothers and families absolutely support adult adoptees being treated equally. Including at least one of the mothers you will see tonight on the report.

For those that would like to know what the experience of many mothers during the 50's-70's, this report will be an eye-opening experience. The amending and sealing of original birth certificates is not unrelated. Single motherhood was shameful. Being born out of "wedlock" was shameful. Amending and sealing was a way to hide one's "shameful" origins, to erase the "illicit" motherhood of these moms, and to keep the original and adoptive families from communicating with one another due to heavy stigmatization of mothers who surrendered children to adoption.

I hold that erasure of one's parenthood and sealing of a document that describes one's connection to the historical event of an adoptee being born onto this earth is just as insulting to mothers and fathers as never allowing an adoptee to equally access that document is to the adoptee.

So yes, I ask you too to ask "what about the mothers" in a compassionate way. And to listen.

We Adoptee Rights Activists, who are not just adult adoptees but original families, adoptive families, Social Workers, feminists, and other allies, we ask that you lend an ear to these women.

As I said on my personal blog, I will say here: breathe, keep an open mind.

This was something that happened to countless mothers but not all mothers. Every mother deserves the right to identify how she chooses and be in charge of her own narrative. Every mother and every parent is the expert on their own experience.
Pointing out something bad that happened in adoption does not mean your adoption was bad.
Someone's very real experience and how they feel about it does not mean you have to feel the same about your experience.
Every person has a right to have their story heard.
YES, this really happened to countless women. Western Australia acquired similar practices but has since reformed and apologized for them. Canada is near inquiry on their own Baby Scoop Era. Single mothers are still struggling to parent very much so worldwide. The U.S., where many of these practices originated, has yet to acknowledge these real events in history and the widespread impact it had on women in history, and apologize.

We will be tuning in tonight. We hope you will be too.

--Amanda

CALL-TO-ACTION 03/07/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:47:00 +0000

Several other adoption-related bills are currently scheduled for a hearing in the same committee where our bill, HB 963 sits. Tell Rep. Harper to give HB 963 a public hearing too!

Keith Ablow and Fox News Deliver Defaming Remark to Adult Adoptee Community

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:32:00 +0000

Registration for the 2012 Adoptee Rights Demonstration is now OPEN!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:09:00 +0000

The Adoptee Rights Demonstration will be held at the location of the National Convention of State Legislators in Chicago, Illinois, on August 6, 2012. The sign-making party will be the previous evening on August 5th.

Details, hotel information, and a discount code will be provided by the Adoptee Rights Coalition soon.

For more information and to register to attend the demonstration, click here.

PAR is proud to have many members of our leadership team attending this year as well as working with legislators inside the convention center at the ARC booth.

Scranton woman turns adoption story into blog - News - The Times-Tribune

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:52:00 +0000

Scranton woman turns adoption story into blog - News - The Times-Tribune

Adoptee Rights Advocate, Linda Bebko-Jones, Passes at 65

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:46:00 +0000

Linda Bebko-Jones, age 65, of Erie, retired Pa. State Representative, passed away Sunday, November 20, 2011 at UPMC Hamot. She was born in Erie on May 1, 1946. Linda was a graduate of Villa Maria Academy and Erie Business Center. She became active in the political system as a Legislative Aide to several Senators. Linda was elected as a member of the Pa. House of Representatives from 1994 until her retirement in 2006. While serving as a representative she was a strong advocate and sponsored many bills to support military and veteran benefits and health and human services, including adoptee rights, substance abuse prevention and women's rights. Some of the many awards Linda received included the Democratic Woman of the Year; Pa. Federation of Women's Outstanding Elected Women; and Women's Club Woman of the Year. She also served as a delegate to the 2000 Democratic Convention and served on many local and state boards and associations. Her lifelong involvement in her local and state community was her main hobby and interest until the birth of her granddaughter. Linda is survived by one daughter, Pam Kulich of San Diego, Calif.; one son, Bryan T. Jones of Erie; one sister, Gretchen Bebko and two brothers, Larry Nimeth (Dorothy) all of Erie and John Bebko, Jr. of Cleveland, Ohio; one granddaughter, Tegan Kulich; her best friend, Carol Krysiak; three stepchildren, Kevin, Mark and Laurie; nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Thomas F. Jones; her parents, Helen Sobolewski Bebko, John Bebko, Sr. and Joanne Nimeth Bebko; one brother, Mark Bebko and one sister, Nadine Bebko. Friends may call at the Dusckas Funeral Home, Inc., East, 2607 Buffalo Road on Tuesday from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. and on Wednesday from 11 a.m. until the time of the Funeral Service there at 1 p.m. conducted by Rev. John Detisch. Interment, Calvary Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society ,-Erie Unit, 2115 West 38th St., Erie, PA 16508. To send condolences, visit http://www.dusckasfuneralhome.com/.

Published in the Erie Times-News on November 22, 2011

Thank you to Karen from PARR for passing this information along.

What do Adoptees in PA Need to Know About Accessing Information?

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 03:59:00 +0000

I won't lie, with the passing of Act 101 and the information that was put out by DPW, I was confused as to what a Pennsylvania adult adoptee should do when in need of information. I had read through a draft of Act 101, various amendments made to it, and its text on final passage but was still confused as to how it was going to be implemented so I sent some questions along to the various agencies involved and I hope the information I received in response will help some adoptees (and their families) out there know what to do.

Original Birth Certificates

Adoptees whose adoptions were finalized in Pennsylvania will need to contact the PA Division of Vital Records to request a copy of their Original Birth Certificate (website).

Identifying and Non-Identifying Information, Medical Info, & Contact
There are several ways for an adoptee to attempt to collect their ID and non-ID information.

An adoptee may contact the County Court in the county where their adoption was finalized to request information from their adoption file. The County Court can inform the adoptee of the process to access information. A listing of County Courts is here. If an adoptee does not know in what county their adoption was finalized, they can contact the PA Division of Vital Records (contact info at the bottom of this page) to receive that information.
An adoptee may register with the PA Adoption Information Registry PAIR (established by Act 101). The PAIR allows adoptees, original parents and other original family members to register their information and provide consent to allow the release of non-identifying and/or identifying information as well as to consent to contact. § 2925 of Act 101 also states: If there is no authorization on file, the department shall designate an authorized representative to: (1) use reasonable efforts to locate the subject of the request and (2) if the subject of the request is located, obtain written authorization from the subject before any information is released. Basic info and forms are found here.
An adoptee whose adoption was completed through an agency may contact that agency to inquire about how to access their record through that agency.
An adoptee whose adoption was completed through the Child Welfare system can inquire about their file through the county children and youth agency.

According to PAE (the Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange): The information provided above pertains only to adoptees whose adoptions were finalized or registered in the Commonwealth of PA, regardless of the state or country in which they were born. If an adoptee was born in PA, but their adoption was finalized in another state, then the adoptee would have to contact that other state to request their process on how to obtain non-identifying and identifying information.

For Original Parents

An original parent may register with the Biological Parent Consent Registry to have the adoptee's original birth certificate released to the adoptee, should the adoptee inquire with the registry. Information here.
An original parent may register with the PA Adoption Information Registry PAIR (established by Act 101). The PAIR allows adoptees, original parents and other original family members to register their information and provide consent to allow the release of non-identifying and/or identifying information as well as to consent to contact. § 2925 of Act 101 also states: If there is no authorization on file, the department shall designate an authorized representative to: (1) use reasonable efforts to locate the subject of the request and (2) if the subject of the request is located, obtain written authorization from the subject before any information is released. Basic info and forms are found here.
Original parents can inquire about information through the agency that handled the adoption.

Keep up with our Links and Resources page for more info on search, rights, activism, and support.

Back from Building Change!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:59:00 +0000

Amanda from PAR presented at a workshop with Marianne Novy who is an adult adoptee and Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Novy is also a member of the Pittsburgh Consortium of Adoption Studies, and the American Adoption Congress. For more photos, see our Facebook page!

Building Change Tomorrow!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:32:00 +0000

PAR will be presenting at this event tomorrow:

Come see us!

Could Adoptees Lose the Right to Vote?

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:01:00 +0000

By Amanda

I don't think many people in the general population understand just how big a deal losing the right to access your Original Birth Certificate is, let alone have whether or not it was ever your right to have one contested repeatedly. The impact of being denied runs deep into different areas of adoptees' lives. Foremost, there is the central issue of being denied the equality of access to a document all others receive. Then there are the issues of being denied truth and for some, not having a birth certificate means they have one less tie to the basic human right to knowledge of ancestry and roots. Being denied our Original Birth Certificates also complicates things for adoptees when it comes to issues of identity where some adoptees are denied passports and have difficulty obtaining drivers licenses. Our access to a passport stands to continually become more difficult. Due to the issue drummed up by some about Obama's birth certificate, legislation has been considered on the national and state level (in multiple states) to require anyone running for public office or the presidency to show their Original Birth Certificate to do so. This means many adoptees would never be able to run for political office and participate in government and policy-making in that way. Could this issue go so far as to one day make it so that adoptees cannot vote?

I will use Pennsylvania as an example. In Pennsylvania, all first-time voters must show identification. Acceptable forms of identification include: a PA driver's license, an ID card issued by PennDOT, and ID issued by another commonwealth agency, a U.S. government ID (with or without a photo), a U.S. Passport, a Student ID, an employee ID, a firearm permit, a current utility bill, a current bank statement, or a current paycheck. However, this stands to be changed by HB 934, a controversial piece of legislation that would make only an ID issued by PennDOT (an ID or a PA driver's license) acceptable to vote. This legislation is criticized because opponents fear that a considerable amount of eligible voters may be blocked from voting due to the impracticality of the proposed requirements. For example, if someone does not already have a PA driver's license, they may lack the means of transportation to get to a PennDOT location to obtain a PennDOT issued ID. Some individuals who work long hours or have multiple jobs to support their family may not have time to wait in the long lines at PennDOT to obtain an ID. Opponents fear that this will disenfranchise citizens who have lesser means to abide by the requirements from voting, namely the elderly and the poor, and those in groups who are most likely to be among the poor: women, single mothers, and multicultural groups.

Legislation like this also raises concern for me as an adoptee when I go to the PennDot website to see what forms of identification are required in order to obtain a PennDOT-issued identification card. Depending on your age and whether you are a new or current resident of PA, the requirements differ slightly, with everyone requried to show one form of ID from "List A."

"List A" includes:
A U.S. birth certificate with a raised seal
A Certificate of U.S. Citizenship
A Certificate of Naturalization
A U.S. Passport

PennDot specifies...
"Only valid Passports and original documents will be accepted. If the name on your original document differs from your current name, you must provide documentation that connects the names, such as an original Marriage Certificate, Divorce Decree, or Court Order document."

As someone who is very involved in the current Adoptee Rights Movement in Pennsylvania, I will honestly say that I have never had a PA (PA-born or born elsewhere but residing in PA) adoptee come to me and say they couldn't get a driver's license although I do know people who have had issues in other states. However, the issue lies within the fact that the birth certificate that most adoptees nation-wide receive is not the original birth certificate and the issue arises when the filing date listed on the amended certificate is far past the time of birth indicating that another birth document existed before the amended one that the adoptee is issued. I am concerned that getting a driver's license or PennDOT issued ID could become an issue for adoptees in PA--which means also if bills like HB 943 pass--voting will also become an issue. I think we've more than gotten the message that identity is important with increased measures (or legislative attempts thereof) for proving identity to vote, run for public office, travel internationally, and drive. Why don't more people "get" that identity is important for adoptees too, especially when society continues to make requirements adoptees can't meet--and can't meet by no fault of our own but because of other rules society also made. It's like telling a bird to fly after you've just clipped its wings.

Adoptees and the Abortion Stigma

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 07:01:00 +0000

By Amanda

With the recent passing of innovator, former Apple CEO, and adult adoptee, Steve Jobs, popular articles about the fact that Jobs' original mother could have chosen abortion are flooding the media. As an adoptee, I shake my head at this stigma that follows adoptees and their mothers. Abortion is a decision about pregnancy. Adoption is a decision about parenting. What in the world do they have to do with one another? A lot of women experience unplanned pregnancies. A lot of women consider abortion. Most mothers who have unplanned pregnancies that carry to term and give birth keep their babies. Isn't it more likely that those whose mothers considered abortion therefore would be among those who aren't adopted? Yet adoptees and their mothers are the only ones to carry this stigma. We are valued by our mother's reproductive choices. Our mothers are valued by their reproductive choices. You see, when we say "adoptees aren't equal" we don't just mean that we lack equal access to our birth certificates. We also mean that we lack equal status in the eyes of others. Stereotypes, something perpetuated by secrecy and sealed records, is a part of that.

The articles about Jobs' mothers alleged decision-making process while pregnant with him in 1956 reminds me of a news clip I watched about a year ago where a reporter hounded Adoptee Rights activist, Zara Philips, repeatedly asking her if she was sure that adult adoptees accessing their own birth certificates would not cause abortion rates to rise. She couldn't have said "no" enough times. For whatever reason, people cannot let go of these stereotypes. So here's a bit of information about abortion statistics in access legislation states:

We do not believe any correlation between access legislation and abortion rates exists. If one really wanted to make a correlation by looking at the rates, you'd see a decline in abortion, rather than the stereotype's predicted increase. Even when looking at abortion and adoption rates when infant surrender rates abruptly dropped from about 20% in the 1970's (a number advocates for the rights of senior mothers will tell you is a very low estimate) to about 2% currently, researchers have noted that the decline in abortion rates indicates that mothers are not necessarily choosing abortion over adoption instead (source). Truly, these two issues do not have as much to do with one another as people believe.

Asking an adoptee about adoption or an Adoptee Rights activist about abortion rates is not just a simple question to us, folks. Throwing abortion in an adoptee's face with the assertion that it is their responsibility to remain unequal and lack information about their own life in order to control some other social issue is unfair, hurtful, and oppressive. It's based on bad information fueled by stereotypes about adoptees and women. Abortion, adoption, parenting: these are all seperate issues where society continues to favor the stereotypes over the real stories and realities of individual people. Please work to end the stigma of abortion for adoptees and their families. When you hear the abortion-adoption stereotype, correct it. "That's just not true." It's really that simple.

Building Change: a Convergence for Social Justice

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 05:44:00 +0000

Register today for the first-ever gathering of people and organizations from across Southwestern Pennsylvania – community members and leaders, human services providers and small business owners, union members, grantmakers, filmmakers, artists, entertainers, media representatives, people from all backgrounds and interests – who share a common goal of advancing social justice and change in our region and world.

This is a three-day, open attendance conference on social justice and change for the 10-county Southwestern Pennsylvania region. Events include workshops, training sessions, plenary sessions, keynote addresses, panel discussions, the Building Change Film Festival, 7 Pathways to Change Art Show, an Internship Fair, entertainment, Youth Leading Change event, and more. Don't miss our renowned Keynote Address by Winona LaDuke on the evening of Thursday, October 13 at 6:30 PM.

Click here for more information.

Adoptee Rights will be presented on Saturday at 1PM.

Back from Pittsburgh!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Amanda Woolston

Amanda with Marianne Novy for the Q & A Panel

Amanda with Libby from the Pittsburgh Consortium for Adoption Studies

Bits from Amanda's Speech:

Before the Film:
I am a reunited adoptee, adopted in 1985 through private, domestic infant adoption. I am one of a small percentage of adult adoptees who have been granted the legal right to access their sealed birth record and am part of an even smaller percentage of adoptees with access to their own sealed adoption records. You can find my musings on adoption on the internet on my blog entitled Declassified Adoptee. I am also the founder of the Lost Daughters collaboration project blog and the Pennsylvania Adoptee Rights which is a grassroots group that advocates for the restoration of the right of adult adoptees born in Pennsylvania to access their Original Birth Certificates. Believe it or not, adult adoptees are the only citizens born in the United States who are denied access to their own Original Birth Certificates. When a child is adopted, their birth certificate is sealed and an amended one is issued in its place stating that the adoptive parents are the parents who gave birth and other information may be changed as well. It was once a right we had, just like everyone else, to access the original document. There are a handful of states that allow access or have restored access to adult adoptees; Pennsylvania is not one of them.

Prior to 1984, an adoptee born in Pennsylvania could access their original birth certificate simply by writing in to the Vital Statistics Office and requesting a copy. The birth certificate was closed to the public but available to the adoptee to whom it belonged. Despite the protest of those connected to adoption, including the protests mothers who had relinquished a child saying “do not take access away,” Pennsylvania began denying adoptees the equal right they once had. A bill was passed and access was closed. What had once been a very progressive law, in contrast to the rest of the United States at the time, now was a discriminatory law with an archaic policy.

Our births are events in history and our original birth certificates are documents tying us to that historical event. Yet what everyone else who is not adopted walks into the Vital Statistics Office and receives with no issue, regardless of their family circumstances, an adopted person may never themselves see in their lifetime. Strauss’ film is about the secrecy in adoption and how it as impacted the lives of those whom her documentary follows. An adult adoptee being denied the equal right to access their own Original Birth Certificate is only a part of this secrecy.

After the Film:
Strauss’ s film shows adoptees concerned about reunions, ancestry, medical history, and rights to their Original Birth Certificate. Pennsylvania law attempts to address reunion, information access, and medical history needs by use of a registry system. However, Pennsylvania does not address an adoptee’s right to access their birth certificate the same way everyone else does. Adult adoptees being denied their original birth certificates is a civil rights issue, it is a matter of equality, and it is my chosen area of activism. It is what I came here today to share a little bit about with you.

Few people know why birth certificates of the adopted are sealed. In the early 20th century, birth records were not sealed and formal adoptions were not as prevalent. As adoptions increased in number, birth records became sealed away from public view for a number of reasons. One reason was to hide the illegitimate birth of the adopted person. In Pennsylvania up until the mid-1970’s, the birth certificates of individuals born to unmarried parents bore a label that said “illegitimate” and the stigma of illegitimacy could follow a person throughout their lifetime. Changing an adoptee’s identity and sealing their original birth certificate was also seen as a necessary measure to keep their original family from finding the adoptee and interfering with their new life. One particularly infamous adoption worker from the mid-20th century, Georgia Tann, promoted the amending and sealing of birth records in order to hide the fact that the adoptions she had arranged were illegal.

In Pennsylvania while an adoptee’s birth certificate was sealed from the public, it was available to the adoptee. It seems the history of why the birth certificates were sealed and the process by which they are sealed had been forgotten by the general assembly in 1984. Many of our lawmakers had become dedicated to limiting abortion on a state-level after the passing of Roe v. Wade. The same Representative that drafted Pennsylvania’s Abortion Control Act also drafted the bill that closed off birth certificate access to adult adoptees. They thought that by closing off adoptee’s unrestricted access to birth records that Pennsylvania’s abortion rates would fall when there was no empirically-based evidence to support this. In fact, we know from looking at states that treat adoptees equally, their abortion rates are not any higher than those in any other state.

The Adoption Act of 1984 took away an adoptee’s ability to access their birth document by simply requesting it. Now the adoptee had to either petition a judge or check in regularly with a passive state registry to see if their original parents, who may not even know the registry exists, have placed permission on file for them to have their birth certificate. This is problematic for many reasons. For one, as I said, parents and adoptees may not even know the registry exists in order to be able to use it. Passive registries have very high failure rates. The biggest issue of all with adoptees having to use the court and registry systems is that it makes adoptees a separate class of people with fewer rights than those who aren’t adopted.

So where is Pennsylvania today? In the early 2000’s, there were several access bills that were drafted and failed. In 2009 in response to support in his district, mainly from that of a mother who surrendered her daughter to adoption, Priscilla Sharp, State Representative and adult adoptee, Kerry Benninghoff drafted an equal access bill that, if passed, would have made Pennsylvania one of the most progressive states in the nation in regard to adoptee equality. His bill would have put adult adoptees back under the vital statistics law to access their birth document the same way that every other citizen born in Pennsylvania does. Unfortunately, his bill died in committee at the end of session while a different bill was made law. Under the recently changed law, the adoption social, medical, and identifying information registries will be managed by the Department of Public Welfare. No longer can adoptees petition or receive permission to see their actual birth document but rather a “summary” of certain information on their birth document. In my opinion, this makes our adoptee access laws one of the worst in the nation.

The Baby Peddlers: Interesting Article in Philadelphia Magazine from 1975

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:28:00 +0000

"The “gray market” technique is a non-agency procedure that usually finds lawyers and doctors working together to find babies for couples who want them badly enough to buy their way around the long waits on agency lists. The doctor is often the initial contact, while the lawyer handles the money part of the deal, which includes the payment of medical and legal expenses. The cost can run as high as $25,000. This is where the gray market turns a little black."

Read the rest here.

Pennsylvania Adoptees Should be Seen and Not Heard

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:08:00 +0000

As some of you who have been following us may be aware, Senate Bill 1360 passed last session and was made law. It was praised for making Pennsylvania one of only 24 states in the U.S. to legally recognize open adoptions. It brought Pennsylvania forward in adoption history while at the same time pushing it way back. By saying we've gone back in history I mean, of course, the provision where birth certificate access is now described as access to a "birth certificate summary" and access is still conditional upon the permission of an adoptee's first parents.

According to a DPW bulletin dated April 22, 2011:

"Act 101 will have far-reaching effects on the ability of adopted children to maintain lifelong connections with their biological family and to have access to information that may not have been readily available in the past when appropriate authorizations are on file. These connections to both people, as well as information, will allow access to information that provides an opportunity for children to understand their past and its potential impact on their lives and the lives of their descendants."

What the law essentially says is, your connections to your original family and past are important....only if another person determines so for you, on your behalf, by putting a consent on file. Even if your a 30, 40, 50, 60 (etc.) year old "adopted child." Yes, this law determines how adult adoptees will access their identifying and non-identifying information.

Among the groups listed as assisting in developing policy that makes this law work were original parents, adoptive parents, and other entities. You will notice that adult adoptees, who were once adopted children and who will be still impacted by this legislation as adults, were not listed as being consulted. The old passive registry and court system was a confusing, ineffective, and expensive ordeal for many adult adoptees who attempted to use it. No better a person is there to ask about being adopted than an adoptee. No better a person to ask how a system an adoptee will use should work than an adopted person who has used a system that hasn't worked.

The forms to use the new passive registry system, entitled "P.A.I.R." (Pennsylvania Adoption Information Registry), are found here.

It is the opinion of Pennsylvania Adoptee Rights that treating adult adoptees as perpetual children and micromanaging their ability to access information most others take for granted is both unacceptable and discriminatory. We are deeply disappointed that Pennsylvania continues to make separate rules for the adopted that make what is an unquestioned right for those not adopted a conditional privilege for those who are. It is hard to believe that it was only 26 years ago that Pennsylvania had one of the most progressive adult adoptee access laws in the United States.

Adoption on Film: Families Lost and Found

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 03:53:00 +0000

Amanda from Pennsylvania Adoptee Rights will be briefly speaking about the amending and sealing law in Pennsylvania at a film festival taking place September 16 -17, 2011 at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, University of Pittsburgh.

The films shown will be:

Wo Ai Ni Mommy (Stephanie Wang-Breal, 2007),
Adopted: For the Life of Me (Jean Strauss, 2010),
Amanda will be speaking before Strauss' film is shown
To Each His Own (Mitchell Leisen, 1946),

Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)

Amanda's blurb will be made available here on the PAR blog after the film festival takes place.

For more information on the event, see the "events" page at the Pittsburgh Consortium of Adoption website.

Reuion & Medical History: the Right Argument to Getting your Rights Restored

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:01:00 +0000

Adoptee Rights Activists reach out to other adoptees, their friends and family members whenever possible to spread the message about the unfortunate state of the lack of Adoptee Rights in the United States. One such opportunity just took place at the annual Adoptee Rights Demonstration in San Antonio, Texas. As new advocates join and inquire with the Pennsylvania Adoptee Rights group pretty regularly, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the arguments for access and why it's important to keep Adoptee Rights about equality.

First of all, I will absolutely acknowledge that there are many hardships that have come along with not having access to one's original information and original family. For instance, there are so many who have had needless health complications because they had no medical history to provide their health care practitioners. Wanting to search for family is also completely understandable.

But these things do not argue for your full equality. They will not make your original birth certificates accessible to you the same way other citizens access theirs. This is because Pennsylvania already believes it is addressing these issues. Let's discuss why that is.

Your Rights Based on Search/Reunion
As I said, the desire to search is absolutely understandable. However, when we ask for our original birth certificates based on our desire to do a search, the response is "OK, you can have your birth certificate if your family wants to be found." How fair is that? Not to mention, having an OBC does not guarantee a successful search. Research has shown that of adoptees who have their OBCs in Oregon who desired to search, nearly half of them were unable to find the parent they were looking for, despite the fact that they knew the parent's name.

This argument is also not inclusive of everyone. Not everyone that wants their OBC wants to reunite. Some know their parents' names or are reunited already. They want their OBC because it is theirs.

Pennsylvania already believes it addresses this request and our laws do it in the way I've described above. It allows adoptees to petition the court system for non-ID and ID, and some courts will hire a confidential intermediary to seek permission from the original parents to have their information released. There is also a passive mutual consent registry where adoptees can check to see with their original parents have put a release on file. Passive mutual consent registries have enormous failure ratings.

You should have your OBC because it is yours, not because someone else gives you permission. Who else, regardless of family drama, has to ask for permission to see their own birth certificate? Searching, reunion, and contact are the private business of the adoptee and their family members.

Your Rights Based on Family Medical History
As I said, I know that for so many people, managing their health care has been tremendously difficult without a family medical history. I had a tumor at the age of 21 that was extremely hard for my doctors to identify. It would have been helpful to have been able to share that I have a history of both malignant and benign tumors on my paternal side with my doctors. It is also a good cause. People can come up with 90 million ridiculous, stereotype-riddled reasons why adoptees should not have access to their birth certificates--answering these can be a daunting and overwhelming task. Few people will say to an adoptee that they should not be able to have information to manage their health care and to be able to pass it on to their own children.

However, the issues are still separate.

Adoptee Rights asks for the restoration of an Original Birth Certificate to each adult adoptee who wants theirs. PA birth certificates are very simple are are not likely to have any medical information on them. The implication of this argument then would be, that the adoptee will use their OBC to find their original family to ask for family medical history. The response to this? "OK, you can have your OBC if your original family wants to share it with you" or, some other legislation that addresses medical history while leaving adoptee equality out of the mix.

Pennsylvania already believes it addresses this request. PA has a mutual consent registry for the exchange of medical information, managed through the Department of Public Welfare. It does not address adoptee equality. It does not involve the release of OBCs or make OBC release equal for all.

As I said before, asking for contact or even medical information is a private matter between the adoptee and their families. I agree that Pennsylvania needs to improve its medical information registry! However, that is a separate matter from the OBC issue. Neither cause will get any justice when we put the two together in the same argument.

Your Right to be Equal
Adult adoptees born in PA have a right receive their Original Birth Certificate because it is a right afforded to every other person born in Pennsylvania. Period. There is no justification for treating adult adoptees differently than everyone else.

Pennsylvania current law does not currently address this request. And it should.

To learn more about the arguments so that you can reach out to your legislator, visit our Get Informed page at the top of our website.

---Amanda

An Adoptee Rights Demonstration 2011 Video

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:11:00 +0000

It's Op-Ed and Letting Writing Time! Let's Get Going!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 17:27:00 +0000

This is the perfect opportunity for everyone to start writing to their legislators and submitting Op-Eds to their local newspapers!

Here's some topics you can cover:

Rhode Island just passed a law giving adult adoptees unconditional access to their own original birth certificates. They have joined Alaska, Kansas, Oregon, New Hampshire, Alabama, and Maine as the states who treat adoptees equally. PA has an Adoptee Rights bill too, HB 963. Let's be the next state to correct to treat adult adoptees equally!

The Adoptee Rights Demonstration is in one month! Activists from all over the world will be at the National Convention of State Legislators protesting and inside the convention at the Adoptee Rights Coalition booth providing education. Let your local newspaper and your legislators know that Pennsylvania adoptees and mothers and VOTERS will be there marching for the return of Adoptee Rights!

Happy Independence Day! This is a time where we reflect on freedom and justice for all in our country. But what about the rights of adoptees and the injustice of adoptee inequality? Discrimination is not an American value.

Is your legislator on the House Children and Youth Committee? Call/email/write to them and ask them to give HB 963 a hearing! For more info on the bill and info on who to contact, click here.

Fenichel Adoptees on Huckabee

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 00:14:00 +0000

Two Fenichel adoptees were featured on Huckabee a few days ago, talking about their right to know their information, their search for their original families, and their quest to discover their roots. These two young woman are just a few of many adoptees who were sold as babies as a part of an illegal adoption ring run by Seymour Fenichel, who opperated in several states, Pennsylvania included, in the 70's and 80's.

Fenichel's ring advertised to expectant mothers, offering free housing and medical care. Mothers were then pressured into adoption and their babies sold for anywhere form $8,000 to $12,000. It is believed that the records relating to these adoptees were altered.

As many of you may already be aware, the state practice of amending and sealing has its roots in illegal adoptions. In the 1930's, Georgia Tann, a notorious baby seller, was the first person to convince the vital statistics department of her state to amend and seal the records for her adoptions. All 5,000 of her adoptions were illegal. The purpose? To keep original parents, many of which had their children illegally removed from their care, from having any recourse in claiming their children. Alabama (which has since restored adoptee access to birth records) was the first state to legalize this practice, Tennessee (which has since restored conditional access to birth records), which was Tann's home state, was the second. The practice quickly spread throughout the United States under the guise of providing the adoptee protection from their illegitimate status as their birth certificate often carried a label stating "illegitimate" (a practice Pennsylvania did not discontinue until the 1970's). It was also thought that by changing the identity of the adoptee and sealing the original, that the original family could not interfere with the adoptive family.

Today, amending and sealing and adoptee lack of access to their own birth record is defended by unfounded claims that it is necessary to keep abortion rates low. This is not why amending and sealing began. Amending and sealing is not right. As we can see in the cases of illegal adoptions, falsifying records and hiding an adoptee's origins hides injustices against the adoptee and the adoptees families.

Transparency in adoption; how can we claim the best interest of those involved without it? The right to know where you came from. These are rights and they need to be restored in PA.

If you missed seeing two Fenichel adoptees featured on Fox News' show, Huckabee, please head on over to these links, part one and part two, and check it out.

RHODE ISLAND....THE 7TH STATE!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:43:00 +0000

Congratulations to adult adoptees born in the state of Rhode Island. A victory today, in one year the law will take effect that will allow adoptees over the age of 25 to access their own original birth certificates!

Please, please head over to Access Rhode Island's Facebook page and "like" them and thank them. They did an amazing job!

PAR Featured on Yahoo! News

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 06 May 2011 02:30:00 +0000

"Imagine not knowing who your mother is, what your genetic heritage is, or how you might be connected to history. Imagine having difficulty getting a passport or driver's license. For adopted individuals, this is an unfortunate reality, since many states prevent them from accessing their original birth certificates. But if mother and activist Amanda Woolston, 26, can do anything about it, that will change.

Woolston, who lives in the greater Philadelphia area, is a stay-at-home mom, part-time student, and activist by night. She takes care of blogging, corresponding with other activists, letter writing, and other activities after her sons, 2 1/2 years and 4 weeks, go to sleep. The issue is personal to Woolston, who was adopted, but it was because of her children that she became an adoptee rights advocate......"

Read the rest here.

Introducing HB 963 & How You Can Help

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 14:15:00 +0000

House Bill 963, introduced by Rep. Benninghoff, authorizes the Pennsylvania Bureau of Vital Statistics to disclose the original or amended copy of a birth certificate upon the written request of an adoptee age 18 or older. To view the bill, go to www.legis.state.pa.us and click on “Find Legislation by Bill No (HB 963).” The first several paragraphs of the bill are taken from the language in Senator Greenleaf’s bill passed last fall and provide for release of a summary only of the original birth record. Under paragraph (d) of Rep. Benninghoff’s bill, the adopted adult is entitled to receive a copy of his or her original birth certificate.

HB 963 has been assigned to the Committee on Children & Youth. At this time, we are asking that you contact the Majority Chair and Vice Chair of this Committee requesting that they schedule the bill for a hearing. Contact information is:

Rep. Dennis M. O’Brien
Chair, Children & Youth
Email: dobrien@pahousegop.com
Phone: 215-632-5150

or

If your legislator is a member of Children & Youth, you should also contact her or him.

Here is the message you should convey:

Currently, non-adopted people born in Pennsylvania can apply to the Bureau of
Vital Statistics, pay a $10.00 fee and get their birth certificate. Adopted people,
however, may only receive copies of their amended birth certificate, issued after
their adoptions were finalized. Their original birth certificate is sealed to them.
HB 963 would allow PA-born adopted adults to receive a copy of his or her
original birth certificate in exactly the same manner as every other citizen of the
Commonwealth. We urge you to schedule a hearing in the near future affording
members of the adoption community the opportunity to voice our support for HB
963.

Remember, the more voices that the legislators hear, the better chance we have of getting a hearing.

717-787-5689

Rep. Dan Moul
Vice Chair, Children & Youth
Email: dmoul@pahousegop.com
Phone: 717-334-3010

or

717-783-5217

Update About Act 101 of 2010 (SB 1360)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:17:00 +0000

Individuals interested in Adoptee Rights and accessing information about their adoptions have been asking PAR about the new law and where they can find information. According to DPW...

April 25, 2011: the new law takes effect
March 2011: the Act 101 Bulletin will be released that will outline the new requirements in laymen's terms.
After the release of the final draft of the Act 101 Bulletin, all forms about the expanded registry will be available at www.adoptpakids.org along with the Act 10l Bulletin.

We hope that helps some of you who had questions.