A 1974 article from the Detroit Free Press on the closing of my birthplace, Crittenton General Hospital of Detroit, fails to mention the thousands of adoptees who were born and relinquished here in the decades after World War II.
I have published an article that examines a widespread practice of hiding the history of the U.S. adoption system and how it operated nationally in every state in the decades after World War II. Those who promoted adoption include millions of family members, religious organizations like the Catholic Church, the Salvation Army, social service groups that served single mothers, mainstream religious leaders and churches, doctors, some medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, hospitals that delivered the infants, and the profession of social work, whose practitioners managed and promoted the adoption system for decades.
Yet the roles of adoption institutions are whitewashed and omitted in most accounts that most of the public will read from these groups’ publications and on online sources. My research that I highlight in greater detail in my book indicates this pattern of historical inaccuracy is intentional, in order to hide their complicity in promoting a system that separated families. For most of those impacted, this has been and remains a lifetime separation because of discriminatory laws sealing adoption records.
In a college class in women’s studies, I wrote a report on your book and the Baby Scoop Era by Karen Wilson-Buterbaugh.
I was able to apply laws and found violations proving coercion, fraud, and since the woman was a citizen, a violation of the 14th amendment of due process. And I am confused. If a judge did not confirm with the social workers, that the Mom was presented with all the alternative welfare sources to keep and raise her child, shouldn’t that automatically reverse or cancel the surrender contract? That not only holds the social workers and docs to legal violations but also the courts???
Thanks for reading my book. There is no such thing as an “adoption contract.” One reason for that is because an adoptee can’t be a signatory. Another reason may be the age of the mother, who could be/have been a minor. There are adoption decrees, which is the formal court document that finalizes the relinquishment of a child to new parental guardians or other adult guardians. There are also adoption consent relinquishments. In my book I argue that adoptees are denied due process under the 14th Amendment in the denial of their original birth records by discriminatory state laws the single out U.S.-born adoptees solely on the basis of birth for different treatment granted to all non-adoptees born in the United States. You can also see this short article on the topic: http://www.adoptionbirthmothers.com/there-are-no-contracts-in-adoption/.