ACLU is opposed to open records? Oh and what does this group stand for?

Question

Okay check out CNN!! http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/personal/11/12/adoption.birthrecords.ap/index.html

ACLU has taken on a new cause not to let adoptees access to adoption records. I want to know your thoughts! This is outrageous!! ACLU says it pushes birth parents into unwanted relationships with their childeren?!!

Answer 1

I think their name doesn't mean what it stands for because for the life of me, I cannot figure out how they stand for civil liberties. This is just a new low for them.

Answer 2

David, the confidentiality was never legal, and it was first put in place to A) protect adoptees from the stigma of illegitimacy and B) to protect adoptive parents from interference by the first family.  To turn things around now and say it was to "protect" the one party it was not meant to protect, the first mother, really is changing the rules...and retroactively so.

First parents have the same rights to not be harrassed or stalked by their offspring (or anyone else!) as every other American citizen--no more, no less.  

But I have no right to my own birth certificate.  I don't have the same rights as every other American citizen.  I find the ACLU's stance on this issue deplorable.

I know that relinquishing me for adoption was not easy, and that it was a source of shame for my birth mother.  But that doesn't supercede my basic rights.

Answer 3

Adoptions were conducted under a system of confidentiality, to spare birth parents from encounters with their offspring.

Changing the rules on them now is unfair.  Those birth parents gave the gift of life to the children in question, and owe them nothing further...unless they expressly waive their confidentiality.

Answer 4

You know, these aren't really questions you guys are asking. It's just a way for you all to promote your anti-adoption propaganda.

Answer 5

This is not NEW.

Planned Parenthood doesn't support adoptees, either.

Answer 6

Yup, ACLU is scum on this issue.

They've swallowed the line that open records=forced relationships.

Really, I am still waiting for someone to tell me how giving someone a slip of paper with some info on it forces a relationship?

Actually, I'm wondering how ANY relationship can be forced? Doesn't it take two people agreeing and reciprocating to have a relationship?

The funny thing is, I'm a mom who relinquished a child, and no one EVER asks me if I'm for or against open records. You'd think, if everyone was so concerned about "protecting our privacy," they might bother to find out first whether we actually WANT that "privacy" (ummm, anonymity).

Oh that's right. This isn't about us at all. It's about keeping the industry's pockets lined.

Silly me.

Edited to add: Hey David, guess what? I was never promised anonymity. Neither were the other hundred or so relinquishing moms that I know, either. It's a lie that we were promised anonymity, and it's a lie that we want it. Most of us want open records.

Answer 7

It seems to me that they are ignoring the rights of many (adoptees) in order to protect the wishes of few (first parents denying contact).

I don't love all the things I learned about my biological family once I found them but I had the right as an american citizen to know the information.

I have been denied my medical history my entire life and it has effected my children negatively.  My older son's asthma went undiagnosed by doctors because we had no family medical history of it.  I had to demand and push to get them to recognize his asthma and get him the treatment he needed.  He almost died once as an infant.

It turns out that asthma runs strongly in my biological family.  if I had that info years ago, it would have made our lives easier.

Adoptees should have the right to their medical histories and birth information.

Answer 8

American Civil Liberties Union, but it should be the FLCLU,Far Left Civil Liberties Union.And their ultimate goal is Communism,just wait and see.

Answer 9

The reason why these records were sealed in the first place was because illegitmate births were once considered very shameful and it was a way for the birthparents to make a fresh start and go on with their lives. You say that adoptees have a right to see their records but what about the birthparents? Many birthparents do NOT want to be contacted by the children they gave up for adoption. For them, what's past is past and they do not want to revisit a period in their lives that was often very painful and traumatic for them. Don't you think they have a right to privacy if that's what they want? Some adoptees are very persistent and will ignore their wishes to be left alone.

Answer 10

Aime M, I'm confused about your answer.  This is about adoptees having access to their records.  If they don't want to look, they don't have to.  But shouldn't they have the rights everyone else has?  This isn't about forcing adoptees back to their birth parents.  This is about giving them access to the records that EVERY OTHER American citizen has access to.

And for those that think this about anti-adoption, how is open records anti-adoption?  Is there something in those records you think will get the agencies into trouble?

I'm very puzzled by some of these comments...  If I don't think everything about adoption is perfect, does that mean I'm anti-adoption?  I don't think I'm anti-adoption.  But I'm not going to pretend I don't think there are complexities here that are sometimes missed in the discussion.

Answer 11

Ok, first of all not every person that has been adopted wants to meet there birth parents. Some do and some dont. If you are an older child that is ready to adopted you already know who they are and why you were taken way from them. I can speak for someone who was older when I got adopted. I COULD CARE LESS KNOWING WHERE THEY ARE!!!!!!  I understand that they are closed and people think they shouldnt be BUT there is a reason why. If there bio mom was on drugs and abused the child then they dont want her to go and look for this child. IF the child was abused why would you want these records to  be open?

Answer 12

Civil Liberties Union promoting the denial of Civil Liberties - that one just takes the biscuit

How is it anti-adoption for adoptees to have equal rights to their own information now?  How do you make protesting civil and human rights violations anti-adoption - Geez

Answer 13

American Civil Liberty's Union. <}:-})