This is intended to be a short list, not a comprehensive list of all groups advocating for adoptee rights in the United States. I strongly recommend bookmarking Bastard Nation and Adoptee Rights Law Center, if you seek to follow updates on efforts to reform adoption laws in states that deny equal rights to all adopted persons.
Bastard Nation:
Bastard Nation is the preeminent adoptee-led and mission-focused adoptee rights advocacy group in the United States since the 1990s—the one that refuses to compromise on the premise of restoring full legal rights to all U.S. adoptees. The group has been instrumental in the last two decades in helping to pass legislation in Oregon, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire that restored adult adoptees’ full legal access to their original birth certificates and birth records. The group provides an unequivocal mission statement concerning adoptees’ human and civil rights for access to their original birth records, and it is committed to working with partners nationally who share its mission. For those interested in “inside ball,” Bastard Nation tracks all state-level legislation on its website.
Adoptee Rights Law Center:
The Adoptee Rights Law Center is run by Gregory D. Luce a Minnesota-based attorney and adoptee rights legal activist. His resource called the “United States of OBC” (OBC being an acronym for original birth certificates) shows how each state and the District of Columbia limit or allow OBC access: unrestricted, restricted, conditional, extreme fees, adoption registry requirement, date-based restrictions, redaction provisions, disclosure veto/birth parent consent, zombie veto (a veto that extends beyond a birth parent’s death), and pending or not in effect. His web site lists laws by each state, and his blog provides informed commentary on laws that deny adoptees equal rights.
The American Adoption Congress:
The AAC started during the heyday of the Adoption Rights Movement (ARM) in the 1970s. In May 2018, the AAC made public its firm commitment to adoptee rights. Its new policy statement, published on its home page states: “Let it be known: It is the formal policy of the American Adoption Congress to support state-by-state legislative efforts to restore unrestricted access to original birth certificates (OBC) for all adult adoptees. This is also known as ‘clean’ adoption reform, which is in accordance with widely accepted practices in adoption.” This marks a change from previous statements from a year earlier that it would support so-called “compromise legislation” in collaboration with state adoptee advocates. This moves the organizations closer to Bastard Nation’s commitment to a legal standard in all states that treats all adoptees equally under the law—a standard found in most developed nations such as England, France, and Australia. The AAC continues to publish a summary of state laws on its legislation page that can be useful and a bibliography on adoption that should be of interest to many adoptees, reporters and policymakers.
(Last updated on June 21, 2021)