The Women's Collective for Adoptee Equality is dedicated to restoring the rights of adult adopted persons by uniting with women who have lost children to adoption (“birth mothers”) to support adoptee-led advocacy for unrestricted adoptee rights legislation. Members are organizations created by and for women who lost children to adoption.

The Problem

Adoptee rights advocates working to change public policy face a deliberately engineered obstacle: a cultural misunderstanding that frames adoptee access to their own vital record as a threat to birth mother privacy. This obstacle was created by the institution of private adoption at the height of the closed adoption-era as it sought to expand its own influence through information control. While most of those working within the institution today support transparency in adoption, the dangerous conditioning from this time lives on making it a reality today where adoptee rights advocates are rarely heard the first time they speak in places of power and face incredible odds at succeeding. Legislators, afraid to do more harm to an already traumatized population, continue to echo talking points crafted over many decades that conflate the term privacy with secrecy unknowingly carrying out the power for a private institution that was allowed to operate with extreme secrecy rather than listening to individuals with a lived experience about how these policies have affected them.

Adoptee rights advocates working to change public policy face a deliberately engineered obstacle: a cultural misunderstanding that frames adoptee access to their own vital record as a threat to birth mother privacy.

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Adoptee rights advocates working to change public policy face a deliberately engineered obstacle: a cultural misunderstanding that frames adoptee access to their own vital record as a threat to birth mother privacy. This obstacle was created by the institution of private adoption at the height of the closed adoption-era as it sought to expand its own influence through information control; it was also behind the altering of the law that took their rights away in the first place. Lifelong separation was the intent of the private adoption industry as they convinced policymakers to pass laws that legalized the secrecy they found convenient to forming families by separation and adoption. While most of those working within the institution today support transparency in adoption, the dangerous conditioning from this time lives on making it a reality today where adoptee rights advocates are rarely heard the first time they speak in places of power and face incredible odds at succeeding. Legislators, afraid to do more harm to an already traumatized population, continue to echo talking points crafted over many decades that conflate the term privacy with secrecy unknowingly carrying out the power for a private institution that was allowed to operate with extreme secrecy rather than listening to individuals with a lived experience about how these policies have affected them. True legislative courage means confronting an uncomfortable truth: women who lost children to adoption during the closed adoption era had anonymity forced upon them by institutions, and lawmakers now have the power to correct this historical injustice by restoring adoptee access to their original birth certificates—honoring both the voices of women who never asked for secrecy and the fundamental rights of adoptees to their own identities.

The Problem - Women's Collective for Adoptee Equality

The Problem

Adoptee rights advocates face a deliberately engineered obstacle: a cultural misunderstanding that frames adoptee access to their own vital records as a threat to birth mother privacy. This narrative has been used for decades to block legislative progress and continues to influence policy decisions today.

Understanding Privacy vs. Secrecy

The core obstacle faced by adoptee rights advocates is a culturally embedded misunderstanding that confuses two distinct concepts: privacy and secrecy.

Privacy

The right of individuals to control their own personal information and decide who has access to it.

What birth mothers wanted: Agency in their own stories and the ability to make choices about their identities.

Secrecy

Information control imposed by institutions without consent from the individuals involved.

What was imposed: Institutional control and forced anonymity that silenced both birth mothers and adoptees.

Key misconception: The false narrative that adoptee access to original birth certificates violates birth mother privacy, when in reality, many birth mothers never requested or wanted this secrecy in the first place.

How We Got Here: Historical Context

This obstacle was created by the institution of private adoption at the height of the closed adoption-era as it sought to expand its own influence through information control; it was also behind the altering of the law that took adoptees' rights away in the first place.

Lifelong separation was the intent of the private adoption industry as they convinced policymakers to pass laws that legalized the secrecy they found convenient to forming families by separation and adoption.

Timeline:

  • Closed Adoption Era: Private adoption institutions engineered policies of secrecy that served their interests in family formation through separation.
  • Legislative Changes: The industry convinced policymakers to pass laws that legalized secrecy, permanently altering adoptees' access to their own records.
  • Information Control: Birth certificates were sealed and original identities were hidden, creating a system where truth became inaccessible by law.

The institution of adoption created a narrative that conflated privacy with secrecy to protect its practices, not to protect birth mothers or adoptees.

Current Challenges for Advocates

While most of those working within the institution today support transparency in adoption, the dangerous conditioning from the closed adoption era lives on, making it a reality where:

  • Adoptee rights advocates are rarely heard the first time they speak in places of power
  • Advocates face incredible odds at succeeding in legislative efforts
  • Antiquated views about "protecting" birth mothers persist despite evidence to the contrary

Legislative Roadblocks: Legislators, afraid to do more harm to an already traumatized population, continue to echo talking points crafted over many decades that conflate privacy with secrecy.

They unknowingly carry out the agenda of a private institution that was allowed to operate with extreme secrecy rather than listening to individuals with lived experience about how these policies have affected them.

The legacy of conditioning has created a situation where policymakers often value institutional narratives over the lived experiences of adoptees and birth mothers.

The Path Forward: Restoring Rights

True legislative courage means confronting an uncomfortable truth: women who lost children to adoption during the closed adoption era had anonymity forced upon them by institutions, and lawmakers now have the power to correct this historical injustice.

What restoration looks like:

  • Restoring adoptee access to their original birth certificates
  • Honoring the voices of women who never asked for secrecy
  • Recognizing the fundamental rights of adoptees to their own identities
  • Understanding that true privacy honors agency, not institutional control

By updating legislation to reflect modern understandings of adoption, identity, and genetic information, lawmakers can correct historical wrongs while honoring both birth mothers and adoptees.

The solution is not in maintaining secrecy, but in restoring the truth that was deliberately hidden for the convenience of institutions, not for the benefit of the people most affected.

The Problem

Adoptee rights advocates working to change public policy face a deliberately engineered obstacle: a cultural misunderstanding that frames adoptee access to their own vital record as a threat to birth mother privacy.

❓ The Misconception
🔍 The Origin
⚖️ The Reality
🏛️ The Challenge
✨ The Solution

Adoptee access to birth records is wrongly framed as a threat to birth mother privacy, silencing adoptee voices in policy discussions.

Our Strategic Focus

Reclaiming Privacy

Challenge the current culture's manipulation of privacy concepts to maintain secrecy. Demonstrate how current policies enforce secrecy, not privacy.

Amplifying Authentic Voices

Showcase how birth mother voices are co-opted to maintain discriminatory policies, while highlighting true birth mother support for adoptee rights.

Intersectional Rights

Expose how discriminatory adoption policies perpetuate harmful stereotypes about both adoptees and birth mothers, undermining everyone's autonomy.

Contemporary Reality

Highlight how DNA testing and modern technology have made closed adoption practices obsolete, emphasizing the need for updated rights legislation.

Our mission is to challenge the systemic use of secrecy in adoption, advocating for legislation that respects both adoptee rights and true privacy.

National Trend in Adoptee Equality by State

Adoptee equality means a state law is in place that protects an adult adopted persons' unrestricted right to request their own original birth certificate.

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Member Organizations