There is a hole inside Jane, too. Thirty years ago Jane (not her real name) found herself unmarried and pregnant. In desperation, she went to Seattle to seek an illegal abortion, but the doctor refused her because of a medical condition. When her parents finally found out she was pregnant, they urged her to give up the baby to spare the family from shame. Jane moved out of state to a dismal home for unwed mothers and hired a private lawyer back home in Oregon to arrange an adoption. ““The deal was that I would know nothing about the adoptive family, and they would know nothing about me,’’ says Jane, now in her late 50s. ““It was the most searingly painful time of my life.’’ So painful that when the child turned 16, Jane contacted the lawyer to send a message to the adoptive family: she wanted no contact with the child. Ever.
Although they have never met, the fates of Endicott and Jane are inexorably linked in a messy battle over adoptee rights in Oregon. In November, the state’s voters approved Measure 58, an initiative that gives adoptees over 21 the right to their original birth certificates. The move would make Oregon only the third state in the country, after Alaska and Kansas, with open access to adoption records. But two days before the law was to take effect in December, a group of birthmothers filed suit against the state, claiming it violated their right to privacy. With adoptees and birthmothers pitted against each other, the court must now wrestle with the tough question of whose rights are more important. Endicott is aching to search for his past; Jane is struggling to forget hers. And each fears the other’s agenda.
For Endicott, the reckoning is long overdue. Although he always wanted to know about his biological parents, he never tried to track them down because he did not want to hurt his adoptive family. Then last year, prompted by a worsening respiratory condition, he called the agency in Portland that had handled his adoption. A cordial woman proceeded to read him non-identifying information from his file. Mother: 19 years old, blue eyes, of German descent, well groomed. Father: 21, blue eyes, of Irish descent, high-school graduate. ““All of a sudden it hit me,’’ says Endicott. ““This stranger was sitting there looking at the names of my parents, and I had no right to see them.''
The realization jolted Endicott into action. He joined forces with Helen Hill, chief petitioner of Measure 58. Hill, an adoptee who is an artist and teacher, is a member of the radical adoptee-rights group Bastard Nation. ““This is about civil rights,’’ says Hill, 43, who financed the campaign with $85,000 she inherited from her adoptive father. ““There is no reason we should be denied a basic right.’’ Endicott campaigned outside malls and grocery stores, gathering signatures for the ballot initiative. On election night, when the measure passed with 57 percent of the vote, he cheered.
And Jane’s world slid into a tailspin. She never married or had other children, and has spent years in therapy coming to terms with the trauma, always guarding her secret from the outside world. Eventually, she became a successful information-systems manager. But Measure 58 stirred up old pain. She started having nightmares–awful dreams in which she was pregnant, alone and sinking into an abyss. ““It’s like a shadow creeping up on you in the darkness,’’ Jane says. ““You sense it coming and you’re too paralyzed to move.''
For Jane and others opposed, the new law imposes a sense of powerlessness. Oregon now uses an adoption registry and intermediary system, as do many states. If an adoptee wants to find a birthmother, or vice versa, a third party (either from the agency or someone appointed by the state) relays information, gains consent and sets up contact. To get their original birth certificates, adoptees need a court order, usually granted only to provide emergency medical information. Measure 58 removes the buffer. ““It completely ignores mutual consent,’’ says attorney Franklin Hunsaker, who is representing the birthmothers in the lawsuit. ““You can’t uphold one person’s civil rights by trampling the rights of another.''
That’s exactly what adoptee advocates say–the rights of adult adoptees cannot be trumped by the rights of the mothers who gave them up. The question now goes to Marion County Circuit Judge Albin W. Norblad, who is likely to hear the case later this year. One possible compromise: an amendment that would grant adoptees their birth certificates, but would allow birthmothers to attach a ““no contact’’ provision to the document. Neither side likes the idea. Measure 58 supporters say it amounts to a restraining order. Opponents say it would be impossible to enforce.
All that is left now is to wait. On the day the new law was to take effect, Endicott stood in line at the Office of Records in Portland and filed a request for his birth certificate. Around the same time, Jane was contacting the lawyer who arranged the adoption for her, seeking advice on how to protect her privacy. Both are nervously hoping for the best, but are prepared for the worst.
