Here's the letter Sheila G. sent in response to the article published in the San Francisco Examiner titled: "Fight Over Adoption Secrecy!"
Sheila wrote:
I am a birth mother who was raped.
The stigma of
unwed pregnancy in 1969 prevented my family or
social services from helping me keep my baby.
Relinquishment was not my first choice.
After 19 long years I found my daughter. It was
important to me that she know how much I love her
and have thought about her over the years, and I
believed it was her right to know the truth.
The adoption reform movement in this country has
struggled since the 1950s to shed light on the
real
issues and lifelong process of adoption for
adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents.
The
amended birth certificate of adoptees is one of
the first lies in every adoption. This legal
document declares the adoptive parents gave birth
to the child.
Measure 58 in Oregon takes a complicated issue
and simplifies it by giving back to adult
adoptees
a basic human right — to their
birth heritage.
I know of several adult adoptees
who are honest citizens,
married with children,
and who fought for their country in war and
cannot get passports because they cannot produce
their birth certificates.
And there are plenty of birth mothers like me who
love their children and would welcome them into
their lives.
It is time for human rights to
triumph over fear.
Sheila Ganz
San Francisco
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