Lynn Grubb

I've been thinking about why it has taken so long for the United States to grasp that adopted citizens should have a right to an accurate copy of their birth certificate. A struggle for the average citizen to understand adoptee rights comes from the urban legends that circulate like wildfire -- until they are seen as true --when in fact, they are false. The laws are far behind the realities of information, the internet and the wants and needs of modern original mothers and adult adoptees in domestic adoption. Adoptees are dying every day without their medical history, and the stories of their lives.  The progress has been slow since Oregon opened birth certificates to all adoptees in 2000. Read about Oregon's law here . The following myths are alive and well in the minds of the opposition of adoptee access to original birth certificates. Every adoptee needs to be well-versed in "talking points" when the legislature, family and friends ask valid quest...

My original birth certificate  I woke up this morning thinking about how the state stole my birthright and I felt indignant.   This is not anything new, for those of you who know that I participate in Adoptee Rights; but I have, as of late, been thinking about it in a new way. The state of Illinois, with all its wisdom and power, hid from me for 40 years of my life, my God-given human right to know my mother’s name.  And the state of Illinois got away with this injustice by using faulty laws that violated my due process rights.  What is due process?  A right that every United States citizen has.  Let’s look at some definitions: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, property or of any right granted him by statute, unless matter involved first shall have been adjudicated against him upon trial conducted according to established rules regulating judicial proceedings, and it forbids condemnation without a hearin...