Adoption Is Not a Solution for Abortion
Data does not support framing adoption as a solution for abortion.
I am a product of the closed adoption system that was the norm due to the secrecy and shame that surrounded adoption and sex outside of marriage in 1968 when I was born. I was in foster care as an infant and, shortly after, adopted. In a closed adoption like mine, typically the adoptive and birth parents don’t know each other’s identity, which means the adoptee also doesn’t know her identity because the original birth certificate is sealed. I have never seen my original birth certificate. I am one of the millions of adoptees harmed by this secrecy who searched for their birth family. I met my birth mother’s family 15 years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter. I found them by hiring Kinsolving Investigations, a private detective agency specializing in adoption. I never met my birth mother, because she died in 1978 from breast cancer. I met my birth father and family, including a sister and brother, last year through Family Tree DNA. My reunions have been overwhelmingly positive, which, as I understand from the adoptee community, is unusual.
Read the rest of Joanne’s Psychology Today Blog here.
