On February 29th, 2012, the Australian Parliament announced that formal apologies must be made to mothers in regard to the crimes committed in the name of adoption.
The Adoptee Rights Coalition wishes to express our sincere congratulations to the many adoptees and mothers who have tirelessly worked for years in order to makes their voices be heard.
We honor your work in the name of adoption truth.
Why does Australia Matter to Adoptee Rights in the US?
Forced and coerced adoptions were not a rare occurrence, but a system wide acceptable practice that stripped away the rights of mothers. As Australian adoption practices were modeled after the US adoption practices, and as numerous anecdotal histories confirm, we know that the forcible separation of mother and child has repeatedly occurred in US adoption history.Some of the most significant recommendations focus on a range of measures to promote cheaper, unhindered and ease of access to personal adoption records. In a country that is already light years ahead of the USA, they are improving upon a system that we cannot even catch up to.
The Australian Adoption Recommendations include the introduction of integrated birth certificates 'as legal proof of identity' and 'of equal status to other birth certificates', with the report noting the legal and technical complexity of this issue; the provision of a single national access point for birth, death and marriage registers; adding the names of fathers to original birth certificates where these are known; providing funding to extend existing family tracing and support services and for non-government organisations who were involved in former adoption services to identify the records in their possession and make them freely available to those seeking their personal information.
