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O'Connor rejects last appeal to block Oregon adoption law O’Connor, whose jurisdiction includes Oregon, refused to continue a hold on Measure 58, which gives adult adoptees the right to see their birth certificates. The law, approved by voters Nov. 3, 1998, has been tied up in court since. The final stay on the law, ordered by the Oregon Supreme Court at the request of six anonymous birth mothers opposing it, expires at 5 p.m. Thomas McDermott, a Portland attorney and adoptive father who has represented chief backers of the law, said, “It’s a new era for adoption in this state, perhaps in the country. It will ultimately be for everyone’s benefit.” So far, 2,272 adoptees have requested their birth certificates. Forty birth parents have filled out contact preference forms welcoming contact from their children. Sixteen have requested no contact. O’Connor’s decision will unleash a surge of searches in coming months as hundreds of adoptees seek their birth parents, whose names usually appear on their original birth certificates. At the same time, hundreds of birth parents will brace for contact, some with dread. Adoptees are next going to be demanding access to their adoption records, as allowed by a Tennessee law that went into effect in September, predicts Caprice East, a 48-year-old adoptee and interior decorator in Nashville, who lobbied for the law. “Oregon is not done,” East said. “They are going to have to come back and do the (adoption) files.” Kathleen Ledesma, an adoption program manager for Services to Children and Families, says her office, which handled about 2,200 adoptions last year, estimates about 25,000 Oregon adoptees are affected by Measure 58. If you also consider adoptive parents, birth parents, siblings and friends, Ledesma said, “I can hardly believe there is a life in Oregon that is not touched by adoption.” “In general, we are seeing more movement toward open adoptions anyway,” said Kathleen Ledesma, Measure 58 “is going to speed that along even faster.” Measure 58 will, in effect, bar adoption agents from promising birth mothers that their children will never contact them. Adoption rights leaders estimate there are about 6 million adoptees in the nation. So far, 2,272 adoptees have filed requests for their birth certificates. The vital records unit of the Department of Human Services will begin processing requests for birth certificates today or tomorrow at the rate of about 75 per day, estimates Carol Sanders, acting state registrar. She estimates it will take about six weeks to respond to the backlog. In Tennessee, where about 3,000 adoptees have requested adoption records since the law went into effect eight months ago, about 3 percent to 5 percent of birth mothers have filed forms saying they do not want contact, Caprice East said. Tennessee so far has processed about 500 requests for records, which include all adoption and court records in addition to birth certificates, East said. Oregon became the fifth state to give adoptees access to their birth certificates and the first to do so by initiative. The Alabama Legislature recently passed a law, which will give adoptees access to their adoption records beginning Aug. 1. Adoption rights activists expect to see more states open records to adoptees as a result of recent laws in Tennessee, Oregon and Alabama. Closed adoption is dying and dead, Teller said. “It is just over,” she said. “It is a different world, a different culture. There is no
reason to be ashamed.” [ARTICLES] |