When I was pregnant with my son my doctor asked me if there was anything he should know about my birth mother’s pregnancy. Even though our reunion hadn’t been an easy one, because I had been lucky enough to find her I was able to pick up the phone and ask her. She told me about a form of jaemophilia that had developed in her after she gave birth to me – so it was not in the medical history my adoptive parents received. The doctor turned pale and later told me that if he had not had that information neither myself or my son would have made it. I believe that the needs of a child – who becomes an adult – should always be put first. As the vast majority of birth mothers want contact and those who don’t can say no thanks, the arguments against this seem spurious in the extreme. Who are the opposing comments really coming from? I know several right to life people who believe that adopted people should have the right to their own birth certificates – because they believe that the rights of the child who becomes an adult must always be protected! I know many Catholics who feel the same – stats show that in the states where records are open abortion rates have actually dropped! I say look carefully at the people opposing this bill. And follow the money. In my novel, The English American, published by Simon and Schuster, which is on its way to becoming a major motion picture, the journey of my adopted heroine to find her birth parents brings her closer to adoptive parents while answering key questions about her own identity. The novel is autobiographical and covers adoptee rights in detail – for more info go to http://www.alisonlarkin.com. Governor Christie has the opportunity to finally right the wrong that has been done to New Jersey adoptees for decades. I hope and pray he does it.

This is not just about “”curiosity” or even medical history, though those are important.

But what it is really about is restoring the civil rights of adoptees – to make them EQUAL to all other citizens in regard to access their OWN original birth certificates.

The abortion issue is a big smoke screen

If access laws truly lead to an increase in abortion rates, why do states which have passed legislation in the past 10 years report significantly reduced rates of adoption when compared with the national trend of 9% reduction between 2000 and 2005? During that time, the rate of reduction in Alabama was 16% and the rate of reduction in Oregon was 25%. Both of those states implemented unrestricted access laws in 2000.

Governor christie should sign this Bill and give adoptees the Rights that other U.S Citizens take for granted. The Right to know your biological parents shouldn’t be a matter of discussion because most adoptees are deprived of knowing not only their medical background, but their ethnicity, race, and creed. How would a person feel if he/she knew they were of Native American origin, but couldn’t practice or participate in it’s culture because they lack the knowledge of what tribe they derive from? The medical issue should also be of great encouragement in regards to this subject, also because if their exists a history of cancer, hemophilia, or alcoholism, it should be made known to the adult adoptees so that they may take precautionary measures… The list goes on. Help the adoptees find out who they TRULY are, and sign the Bill Gov. Christie… PLEASE!!!

Mary need not worry. The bill now before Governor Christie for consideration strikes a balance between the rights of the child to information that all other US citizens have and the consideration of privacy for birthmothers. All a birthmother need do is provide some cultural background information and medical details and her name will be blacked out on the Original Birth Certificate issued to the adoptee. Reason should prevail. It is time for this compromise to go forward.

If you don’t know the history (secret adoption was a form of domestic abuse) or the research (95% of birth parents welcome contact) you are aiding a sinister coverup. Ask yourself why are priests and adoption brokers hiding behind the skirts of birth mothers?

I am a practising Catholic who was adopted in 1955. I searched too late and my mother and brother had already passed away. I do not know who my birthfather was and I wonder about this every day. I researched a variety of Catholic sources and found conflicting info so I went to The Catechism of the Catholic Church Part III Life in Christ p. 631 under The Gift of a Child regarding the subject of artificial insemination or surrogacy “ These techniques…infringe the child’s right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses’ right to become a father and a mother only through each other” that would seem paradoxical to the quote down on the page encouraging sterile couples to adopt “they can give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children or performing demanding services for others. However, nothing is said about secrecy. There were adoptions in the bible including the story of the birth of Moses but nothing was meant to be an eternal secret. We are revealed the truth through the Bible story.

It also says that the child has “the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception”.

Several times at my church, groups who protect and nurture unwed mothers come to church with the pregnant women and newborn babies and the mothers are not vilified but honored for their choice. Kathy DiFiore of Seven Sources Shelter was the sponsor- I asked her if she promoted closed or open adoption and she said “whatever the mother wants, we don’t force anything on them, most of them keep their babies”.

Please feel free to use this information which is my research on a paper I am writing entitled The Adoptee and the Virgin Birth…A Paradox. The thesis is that as adoptees who have never seen their biological parents, praying to invisible Fathers and Mothers is not so strange!

Nancy Nicholson

Anyone concerned about a rise in abortions as a result of this legislation can put their fears to rest. Both research and experience unambiguously show that this simply doesn’t happen. Here’s a link to the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute’s latest report on he subject: http://adoptioninstitute.org/research/2010_07_for_records.php.

I am an adult adoptee and I hope the Gov. signs this bill. It’s awful growing up and not knowing anything about yourself. Not knowing your roots, nationality or medical history. We have a right to this information just like anyone else. It’s time for the discrimination against adoptees to stop. Unless you are an adoptee you have no idea how awful it feels to not know anything about yourself.

As Birth Mothers have said, they were never promised anonimity. If Catholic Charities led them to believe that, then that’s a shame, but the papers they signed never said that. In NYC you can go right to the library and look up your birth name. Not too anonymous is it.

I am very angry that Catholic Charities is opposing this. There is absolutely no proof that this will lead to an increase in abortions. It didn’t in the other states where adoptions were opened. It’s because of things like this why I no longer go to a Catholic church.

As a 64 year old adoptee I have spent many years wondering who I am. What nationality am I? Most importantly what is my family medical history? I doubt very much that my biological mother is alive. I do know that she never told my biological father that she was pregnant. I have no intention of disrupting anyone’s life, but there are medical issues that I have a right to know. Am I at risk for contracting cancer or any other disease that is carried through heredity? The medical profession has said time and again that knowing your family medical history is an essential factor in guarding your health.

Take a close look at the opponents for this bill passed by the NJ legislature. The Catholic Church and the opposing lawyers are the people who are making money on adoptions today. Using bogus scare tactics that include a rise in abortions is their last ditch effort to keep the profitable business that they are in. They do not care about protecting the privacy rights of the birth parents. Their stand is a self serving one and should be seen for exactly what it is. It is the denial of the rights of the child. Someone needs to stand up for the rights of the child.

Governor Christie, I am asking you to stand up for the rights of the adopted children from the age of day one to 101. They are the ones that need you to support and sign this bill.

I am an adoptee. Giving birth does not make you a parent. Raising and loving a child, providing for them, being there for them makes you a parent and part of a family. My adopted parents will always be my family. I have no need to contact my “birth parents” but I would like this bill to pass. I would like to know where I was born, what time, weight and height, all the small things plus my medical history. For whatever reason I was put up for adoption and lucky enough to find a good family. Not a perfect one, divorce, etc. But one where I was loved. Let the “birth parents’ keep their identities secret but release all the rest.

Many MANY adoptees did not get good families and instead have been abused, neglected, and rejected especially when biological children enter the family. Adoption is not the cure all for unplanned pregnancies. This is about rights NOT reunions. There are already laws in place for those that do not want contact with others. States with open adoption records have lower rates of abortion. Don’t penalize adoptees for being adopted. Basing a child’s life upon falsified information and lies is NOT a good, solid, healthy foundation. Bring truth and honesty into adoption!

Excuse me, adoptees, how about the privacy rights for the mother? I see that you demand the right to intrude on your birth parents without the consent of the birth parent, disrupting their lives…and then disappear again because you have the right to refuse further contact. Well I am sorry but that is very selfish. Be should be grateful that you were placed for adoption and not just aborted and be satisfied with the parents that you have. Moreover, don’t you think that at the very least, if adoptees disrupt the birth parent, that they should stay in contact? Further, there is no guarantee that their birth parents will give them any information at all, or does the government plan on ordering birth parents to disclose.

Of course, there is a solution to this…rather than aborting their babies, birth mothers should flock to cities that have “baby abandonment” laws. Just drop the healthy infant off at a fire station or hospital when it is healthy and under 3 days old and there will be no records for any adoptee to ever overturn…end of problem! I am sure that adoptees will think that this is barbaric…but it is equally barbaric for them to barge into their birth parents’ lives just to obtain health information and then simply vanish, leaving birth parents to try and piece their lives again.

As a birth parent I was NEVER promised confidentiality. I WELCOME the chance to have adoptees know their true roots.

As an adoptee it is too late for me to know my birth parents – but at least I’ve gotten to know my siblings and their children. My children know their cousins.

Abortion is NOT going to change because of this bill. MOST adoptions today are open. The birthmother is known to the child in most cases today. Either a pregnant woman will have an abortion or she won’t. This bill will not alter what someone wants or believes.

I don’t love my adoptive parents any less because I’ve gotten to know my birth family – it just means there is more family to love.

I am a first mother and am thrilled that this bill finally passed and people adopted as adults will be able to learn their histories, their true identities, and be able to fully answer the question the rest of us take for granted: Who am I?

It is worth nothing that abortion rates do not go up when these archaic laws are repealed, though opponents of the bill know this, they persist in putting forth this lie.

Birth parents do not deserve the protection of the state to stay anonymous from their own children. It puts the state in the position of “protecting” a group of people by stripping the rights of another who did no wrong. Their only crime was to be adopted.
I found my daughter when she was 15, with the blessing of her adoptive parents, and for all of us, it was not a moment too soon.
Lorraine from FirstMotherForum.com

Unrestricted open records for adult adoptees is the norm in most of the rest of the free world. Adoptees should have a right to access the records of their birth in the same manner as any other citizen of this nation. Why do we have to continue living with the unknown simply because we were adopted and are governed by antiquated laws that desperately need to be changed? The future is blind without sight of the past. Everyone needs to know where they came from, their origins, their history, their racial and ethnic background, who their mothers and fathers are, and of paramount importance, potentially life-saving medical information. Denying this information is not only an injustice and a denial of a basic human right, but it is immoral and unconscionable. Times and attitudes have changed. We all have a moral obligation to look at historical judgments and correct them if they were made in violation of personal rights.

There should be a system in place to allow the adoptee to ask the biological parents if they want to be contacted. Surprise visits can ruin the family(s) the bio parents created when their children/spouse/parents do not know they had a child they placed for adoption. Yes, the adopted child should have access to their birth parents’ medical and social information.

A person has the right to know their natural families medical history.
The Catholic Church, does not have the right to deny a person from knowing who their birth parents are. It should to be up to the parents if they want to meet their own children. but they shouldn’t be stopped from doing it.

I can understand what hell so many adoptees go through. My husband was born to a single woman how refused to pass any information regarding his bio dad to him. He died a very unhappy man, still wanting to know who his dad was/is. Our son, now would like that very same information as he feels there’s 1/4 of him that remains unknown. On the other hand, I can understand the bio-mom not wanted the information to be released, and a child appearing at the front door, perhaps destroying her present life. It’s a very sticky issue, and I feel for both sides. There must be a middle ground

IT WOULD BE NICE IF SOME OF THOSE ADOPTED WOULD SAY THANK TO THE FAMILY THAT1) loved them, 2) families that stayed up at night when they were scared 3) put coins under the pillow when teeth feel out 4) took them to the park, zoo, trips, school, and…..oh yeah I guess maybe Jolie and Madonna are right, lets go overseas, forget the ones here, no thanks

Because of the oregon bill, I was able to get my own birth certificate, I used it to locate my birth family, and after much soul searching and preparation I contacted them. It did so much for me personally, emotionally, mentally, and even though I have chosen not to continue a relationship, I am so glad I was able to do this.

Gov. Christie, please sign this bill!! The archaic ways in which things have been handled has caused more heartache, trauma, & even death than you can fathom. As adoptees, we should have the right to know who we are, what our heritage is, & our medical history. We should also have the opportunity to locate our birth parents to see if they’d like contact. Odds are they will.
I spent 20 years searching for my birth mother, only to have her located 2 years too late. She’d already passed away, as had my sisters. I was completely robbed of the opportunity to meet them. I did learn from her husband, brother, & sister that she wanted to find me, but didn’t know how or where to begin. This should not have been the case. We should’ve been reunited many years before she passed away.
Incidentally, I can tell officials in the state where I was adopted EVERY item of info on my OBC, but I’m still denied access to it, & both my birth parents are deceased.

Data from states where access exists reveals that if access has had any effect on adoptions and abortions, it was to increase adoptions and decrease abortions.
Since adult adoptees in Oregon and Alabama obtained access to their original birth certificates in 2000, abortions have declined much faster in those states than in the nation as a whole. Between then and 2003 (the last year for which national data are available) resident abortions declined 10% in Oregon and 13% in Alabama, but only 2% in the nation as a whole. In other words, after adoptees gained access in those states, abortions declined five times as fast as in the country as a whole.
Workers at pro-life centers such as Birthright report that young women today will only choose adoption if they are assured of updates or contact with the adoptive family. Gretchen Traylor, Birthright counselor in Minnesota, says, “When adoption is under consideration, the young woman’s overriding concern is that she will be unable to contact her child later in life, and that the child will not be able to find her as well. Pregnant women tell me that if such contact is NOT available, they would rather abort.”
In a national survey of 1,900 women having abortions, not one woman cited the inability to choose a confidential adoption as a factor in her decision to have the abortion. “Reasons for Terminating an Unwanted Pregnancy,” Guttmacher Institute, 2003.

This is the last civil rights movement in the United States. As adoptees, we are liberated by knowing where we came from, who we are, and what that first family is like. Catholic Charities is wrong, as they have been from the beginning, turning adoption into a profitable business for the church. We’re not a commodity, and this bill will ensure that children who are adopted have the same information that all other children have. We deserve that.

Yes, the right to know is a basic human right. Kansas and Alaska did the right thing by never sealing the birth certificates. birth certificates don’t need to be sealed and all that are sealed in U.S. states must be unsealed for adoptees 18 years of age and older. Time for adoptees to be emancipated.

Please sign this bill Gov. Christie. I am an adoptee and I am in my 40′s. I have been trying for years to find my birthmother. The agency from where I was adopted( Catholic Charities) wanted to charge me a few thousand dollars for my original birth certificate, which is an outrage and they have the nerve to call themselves Catholic Charities!!!!!! This should be my right to know where I came from!!! I understand the birthparents will have a right to erase there names but atleast I will know my background…..