Oregon Measure 58: 25 Years Later

Shea Grimm: Bastard Nation co-founder, strategist, organizer, goddess

Helen Hill, Bastard Nation, petitioner, goddess

25 years have passed since Helen Hill and Bastard Nation launched the 3rd wave of the adoptee rights movement with our successful Oregon Ballot Measure 58. Since then 13 states have followed Oregon’s footsteps and unsealed our Original Birth Certificates, and some states (including Oregon) passed legislation to open additional documents. (Kansas and Alaska never sealed)

We’ve wondered how many certs Oregon has released since then. Here’s the latest report straight from the state:

Of over 13,000 OBCs issued,* only 90 mothers asked for No Contact. 0.685401%. Wait! Let’s round that off to 0.69.

Since 2003 only 7 have requested NO CONTACT. So much for the lie that herds of mothers live in fear of their own adult children. They just don’t exist and never did.

But hey!

After M58 passed I participated in a panel discussion on OBC access at the Center for Adoption Law at Capital University School of Law in Columbus. I was told by one of the organizers that they had a horrible time finding anyone to speak against access outside of Bill Pierce from the National Council for Adoption, and the center did NOT want him. (I would love to know that story!) Finally, someone who IRL did not oppose access took the opposing view so the panel would look “fair.” Dr. Pierce later complained that the whole thing was a set-up. But…

A big-name adoption lawyer participated on another panel and had to get his 2 cents in. Standing behind me in the lunch line, he got snooty and accused: “Marley, you know better than that.” Then it got weird. He knew several closeted bio-moms living in terror of their adopted offspring. Then it got weirder. One of them, had for years refused to answer the door or her phone for fear that their little bastard (OK, he didn’t use that term) would plant itself on her doorstop. (axe in hand?} I responded, “She needs therapy.”

In 2023 Oregon went full tilt boogie on adoption record openness, and is now the most open state in the country. The new law:

Allows Oregon-born adoptees 18 and over to access, without court order, their court adoption files except the home study of the adoptive parents.
Requires a judge to allow mothers (and father’s if their consent for relinquishment was needed) access to much of the court records unless there’s a good reason not to release them.
Allows adoptive parents, without court order, access to all of their adopted child’s court adoption records.

We need to update stats for other states. From past research, however, we found that in every state that acknowledges the unrestricted and unconditional right of all adoptees to obtain their OBCs the number of birthparents who file a No Contact Preference form is negligible or non-existent.

Use these Oregon stats (and others when we get them) to expose the lie!

Thanks to Rudy Owens for help with this blog

*The discrepancy in OBCs ordered and released is caused by failure to locate the document. As I remember when that happens the state issues a letter explaining the problem and contains available information, if any.. If I’m wrong, about this alternative, please correct me. I suspect that these records are rather old.

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