I have devoted my professional career to the field of adoption both on a national as well as local level. On a personal level, I am a proud adoptive parent of two wonderful individuals.
It is from this capacity that I feel compelled to address some of the incorrect and potentially harmful comments made by Supreme Court Justice Amy Comey-Barrett about adoption and so-called “safe haven” laws during the recent supreme court review of Roe v Wade.
Adoption is not the “win/win” many seem to believe. It is an extraordinarily difficult decision to place one’s baby for adoption. The loss and grief experienced by both the mother and baby are devastating, even when the mother believes it is the right thing for herself and her child. Decades of research has provided solid evidence of the massive lifelong consequences for both.
What most people may not realize is that, through the 20th century (and to some degree, still today) adoption has been a very secret endeavor. Society has long reinforced the hush-hush nature of the adoption process by passing laws that were designed to keep information about adoption private. From 1936 until 2019, adoption records were sealed in New York State and an adopted person did not have the right to their original birth certificate. This was true in most states across the US. Even today, few states have unrestricted access to original birth certificates (OBC). This socially supported secrecy has resulted in much humiliation, shame, blame, self-loathing and negative self-concept. For these very reasons, advocates have worked hard over the years to open records and change adoption practice in the US and around the world – a very slow, painful process.
Research has also found that adopted people often have inadequate information about their birth history and feel a deep sense of abandonment; birth parents often have no right to contact and no knowledge or choice of where their baby is placed and are left wondering and worrying; and adoptive parents are largely in the dark about their adopted child’s birth and medical history. A new (false) birth certificate is issued in the adoptive parents’ names upon each court finalization of adoption. The core issues of adoption cast a lifelong shadow over each of them.
In her comments, Justice Barrett raised the existence of safe haven laws. These laws were designed to guarantee anonymity and provide protection from criminal liability for parents who safely relinquish their infants by dropping them off at a designated safe haven provider. The infant is then placed in custody of the local department of social services which is responsible for the safety of the child, placement the infant in a pre-adoptive home and petitioning the court for termination of birth parents’ rights. There is solid evidence that these laws perpetuate all of the negative consequences defined above.
The so-called “safe haven” laws are wrong-headed and damaging to all parties. Justice Barrett’s comments are not only ill-conceived but reckless and irresponsible for adoptees, birth parents and adoptive families. Dropping a baby into a box does not “save” them. Safe haven laws do not “take care of the problem” of forced motherhood or forced parenting. “Safe haven” perpetuates secrecy and lies, pain and shame. Justice Barrett would better serve the women and children of this country – as well as her own adopted children - if she took time to educate herself about the actual issues related to adoption for all who are involved in the process.