by Ann Fessler
12. Ibid., 64–66.
13. Ibid., 26–46.
14. See Gordon, Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right, for a thorough history of birth control in America.
15. Beth Bailey, Sex in the Heartland (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 106.
16. John D’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 246, citing Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, regarding use of the diaphragm.
17. Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965). Argued: March 29, 1965. Decided: June 7, 1965.
18. Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972). Argued: November 17, 1971. Decided: March 22, 1972.
19. June Machover Reinisch with Ruth Beasley, The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex: What You Must Know to Be Sexually Literate (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990).
20. Phillips Cutright, “Illegitimacy: Myths, Causes and Cures: A Family Planning Perspectives Special Feature,” Family Planning Perspectives 3, no. 1, Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York and Washington, D.C. (January 1971), 25–48, table 3.
21. Alan Guttmacher Institute, “Facts in Brief: Teen Sex and Pregnancy” (www.agi-usa.org), 1999, updated February 19, 2004.
CHAPTER 4: DISCOVERY AND SHAME
1. Martin O’Connell and Carolyn C. Rogers, “Out-of-Wedlock Births, Premarital Pregnancies and Their Effect on Family Formation and Dissolution,” Family Planning Perspectives 16, no. 4, Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York and Washington, D.C. (July–August 1984), 157–62, table 2.
2. Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, rev. and exp. (New York: Basic Books, 1999), xii, table 1.
3. The 1972 Title IX Educational Amendment Act forbids the expulsion of pregnant girls from federally funded schools. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender. See also Roger J. R. Levesque, Adolescents, Sex, and the Law: Preparing Adolescents for Responsible Citizenship (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2000), 216.
CHAPTER 5: THE FAMILY’S FEARS
1. Kathy S. Stolley, “Statistics on Adoption in the United States,” The Future of Children 3, no. 1, The Center for the Future of Children, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Spring 1993), 32.
2. Ibid.
3. Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 24–25. See also William H. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 112.
4. Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 112–13.
5. Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, rev. and exp. (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 67.
6. Delores Hayden, Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820–2000 (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003), 131–32.
7. Ibid., 132–35. See also Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 117.
8. Hayden, Building Suburbia, 132.
9. May, Homeward Bound, 151.
10. Ibid.
11. Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 111, 117.
12. May, Homeward Bound, 148.
13. May, Homeward Bound, “Marital Status of the Population,” 15, table 7.
14. Rose M. Kreider and Tavia Simmons, “Census 2000 Brief,” U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, Marital Status 2000, issued October 2003.
15. May, Homeward Bound, “Median Age at First Marriage, Male and Female, 1890–1995,” xii, table 1.
16. Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 123.
17. May, Homeward Bound, 121; Chafe, 137.
18. May, Homeward Bound, 207, and evidence from U.S. Census reports.
19. David Riesman, Reuel Denney, and Nathan Glazer, The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950).
20. William H. Whyte, The Organization Man (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1956).
21. May, Homeward Bound, 16.
22. Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 144.
23. Hayden, Building Suburbia, 135.
24. May, Homeward Bound, 20; Whyte, The Organization Man.
25. C. A. Bachrach, K. S. Stolley, and K. A. London, “Relinquishment of Premarital Births: Evidence from National Survey Data,” in Family Planning Perspectives 24, no. 1 (January/February 1992): table 1 (Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York and Washington, D.C.)
26. Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota, Florence Crittenton Collection, box 14, folder 2, Florence Crittenton Bulletin, March 1952, vol. 2, no. 1, page 7.
27. Ibid., 4.
28. Dawn Davenport, “Born in America, Adopted Abroad: African-American babies are going to parents overseas even as US couples adopt children from other countries,” Christian Science Monitor, October 27, 2004.
29. For an excellent overview of race and surrender, see Rickie Solinger’s Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade.
30. B. C. Miller and D. D. Coyl, “Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing in Relation to Infant Adoption in the U.S.,” Adoption Quarterly 4 (2000): 3–25.
31. May, Homeward Bound, 136.
32. Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 97–110.
33. May, Homeward Bound, 82–83. Quote from Republican Party national chairman Guy Gabrielson.
34. Ibid., 82.
35. Ibid., 59–60.
36. For a thorough account of the American family in this era, see Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, and Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap.
37. May, Homeward Bound, 83.
38. Ibid., 69.
39. Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 126–27.
40. Ibid., 124.
41. May, Homeward Bound, 172.
42. May, Homeward Bound, 66.
43. Stolley, “Statistics on Adoption in the United States.” See also Brent C. Miller and Kristen A. Moore, “Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Pregnancy, and Parenting: Research through the 1980s,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 52, no. 4, National Council on Family Relations (November 1990), 1025–44.
44. Roger J. R. Levesque, Adolescent Sex and the Law: Preparing Adolescents for Responsible Citizenship, 123, citing Michael Resnick et al., “Characteristics of Unwed Adolescent Mothers: Determinants of Child Rearing Versus Adoption,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 60 (1990): 577–84.
CHAPTER 6: GOING AWAY
1. Regina Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalization of Social Work, 1890–1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 17, 19, 29, 30.
2. Rickie Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade (New York: Routledge, 2000), 104, 114.
3. Life, February 19, 1951, 101. Fifty dollars in 1951 is the equivalent of $376 in 2005, according to the Inflation Calculator provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Indexes, http://www.bls.gov.
4. Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie, 115.
5. The conversion of 1964 dollars to 2005 dollars is based on the Inflation Calculator provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Indexes, http://www.bls.gov.
6. Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie, 26–27.
7. Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls, 26.
8. E. Wayne Carp, Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 16. Quote by child-welfare reformer Galen Merril at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in 1900. See also Rickie Solinger, “Prewar Attitudes Toward Illegitimate Babies and Mothers,” in Wake Up Little Susie, 149–52; Regina Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls, 32–33.
9. Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls, 32–33.
10. Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie, 150.
11. Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls, 38.
12. Ibid., 53–54.
13. Ibid., 54, citing Stuart Queen and Delbert Mann, Soc
ial Pathology (New York: Thomas Crowell, 1925), 163–64.
14. Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls, 52–54.
15. John D’Emillo and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 189.
16. Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota, Florence Crittenton Collection, box 13, folder 1, Application Form, “Rules Governing Scholarship, Rule #1, To be awarded to a girl who wishes to continue her education to enable her to care for her child,” c. 1941.
17. Ibid., “Rule #4, Board of Home from which application is received to assume responsibility of board of child.”
18. Ibid., letter from principal of school district in support of applicant, January 9, 1941, box 13, folder 1.
19. Ibid., letter from superintendent of Florence Crittenton Home in support of application, box 13, folder 1.
20. Ibid., handwritten thank-you letter, box 13, folder 1.
21. Ibid., box 12, folder 8.
22. Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls, 169.
23. Ibid., citing Rose Bernstein, “Are We Still Stereotyping the Unmarried Mother,” Social Work 5, Boston University (1960): 24.
24. See Regina Kunzel’s Fallen Women, Problem Girls for a thorough overview of the professionalization of social work and the shifting definitions of single pregnancy. Explanations, including the psychiatric diagnosis, are scattered throughout the book but a condensed explanation can be found on pages 144–56.
25. Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota, Florence Crittenton Collection, box 14, folder 2.
26. Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota, Florence Crittenton Collection, box 20, folder 5.
27. Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie, 95, citing interview with Frances Whitefield, September 1989; and Hannah Adams to Jules Saltman, March 1966, Box 1038, file 7-4-6-0 Record Group 102, National Archives.
CHAPTER 7: BIRTH AND SURRENDER
1. E. Wayne Carp, Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 29. See also P. Maza, “Adoption Trends: 1944–1975,” Child Welfare Research Notes no. 9, Administration for Children, Youth, and Families, Washington, D.C. (1984); Kathy S. Stolley, “Statistics on Adoption in the United States,” The Future of Children 3, no. 1, The Center for the Future of Children, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Spring 1993), 30, figure 2.
2. Life, February 19, 1951.
3. Adoptive Families magazine, calculations based on state laws compiled in 2004. Published as PDF file at http:://www.adoptivefamilies.com/adoptionlaws.
CHAPTER 8: THE AFTERMATH
1. Holli A. Askren and Kathaleen C. Bloom, “Postadoptive Reactions of the Relinquishing Mother: A Review,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing (July–August 1999). This is a review of literature addressing responses to relinquishment. The authors cite the research of twelve studies in naming relinquishing mothers’ grief reactions, including “separation loss” (Davis, 1995); “separation anxiety” (Lamperelli and Smith, 1979); “shadow grief” (Lauderdale and Boyle, 1994); and “a discordant dilemma” (Rynearson, 1982).
2. Carol Davis, “Separation Loss in Relinquishing Birthmothers,” International Journal of Psychiatric Nursing Research, 1, no. 2 (1995): 55–66.
3. Askren and Bloom, “Postadoptive Reactions,” citing Carol Davis, “Separation Loss in Relinquishing Birth Mothers”; and Leverett Millen and Samuel Roll, “Solomon’s Mothers: A Special Case of Pathological Bereavement,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 55 (1985): 411–18.
4. Michael DeSimone, “Birth Mother Loss: Contribution Factors to Unresolved Grief,” Clinical Social Work Journal, 24, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 66.
5. “Coping with Loss—Bereavement and Grief,” National Mental Health Association Web site, http://www.nmha.org/infoctr/factsheets/42.cfm.
6. Robin Winkler et al., “Birth Parents,” in Clinical Practice in Adoption (New York: Pergamon Press, 1998), 48–68; Askren and Bloom, “Postadoptive Reactions”; Davis, “Separation Loss”; DeSimone, “Birth Mother Loss”; Robin Winkler and Margaret van Keppel, Relinquishing Mothers in Adoption: Their Long-Term Adjustment, Institute for Families Studies Monograph No. 3, Melbourne, Australia, 1984; Eva Y. Deykin, Lee Campbell, and Patricia Patti, “The Postadoptive Experience of Surrendering Parents,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 54, no. 2 (April 1984): 271–80; Leverett Millen and Samuel Roll, “Solomon’s Mothers: A Special Case of Pathological Bereavement,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 55, no. 3 (July 1985): 411–18.
7. DeSimone reports 34 percent in “Birth Mother Loss.” The figure is 37 percent in M. J. Carr, “Birthmothers and Subsequent Children: The Role of Personality Traits and Attachment History,” Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless 9, no. 4 (2000): 342.
8. The National Infertility Association, information regarding secondary infertility. http://www.resolve.org/.
9. Askren and Bloom, “Postadoptive Reactions,” 395–400.
10. Winkler and van Keppel, “Relinquishing Mothers in Adoption”; see also the guidebook to clinical practice by Winkler, van Keppel, Dirck Brown, and Amy Blanchard, “Birth Parents,” in Clinical Practice in Adoption (New York: Pergamon Press, 1998), 48–68.
11. Askren and Bloom, “Postadoptive Reactions,” conclusion, 395.
12. I highly recommend Winkler’s Clinical Practice in Adoption. Intended for clinicians and adoption workers, it offers guidelines for working with mothers who have surrendered, adoptive parents, and adoptees.
13. R. Pannor, A. Baran, and A. Sorosky, “Birth Parents Who Relinquished Babies for Adoption Revisited,” Family Process 17 (1978): 329–37. See also Winkler’s “Relinquishing Mothers in Adoption.”
14. There is no accurate count of the number of surrendering mothers in the United States today, but the number of children placed in nonfamily adoptions is believed to be 5 million to 6 million. D. Brodinsky and M. Schechter, eds., “A Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment,” in The Psychology of Adoption (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). Thus the corresponding number of mothers who have placed these children, less foreign adoptions, may conservatively total 4 million to 5 million. Davis placed the number of relinquishing mothers in the United States at 10 million. Davis, “Separation Loss,” citing A. B. Fonda, “Birthmothers Who Search: An Exploratory Study,” doctoral dissertation, California School of Professional Psychology, 1984.
15. Daniel A. Sass and Douglas B. Henderson, “Adoption Issues: Preparation of Psychologists and an Evaluation of the Need for Continuing Education,” Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, Special Issue: Adoption 9, no. 4 (2000): 349–59. The figure of 8 percent is probably low, because only half of the psychologists surveyed had asked their patients if they were part of the adoption triad.
16. Diana E. Post, “Adoption in Clinical Psychology: A Review of the Absence, Ramifications, and Recommendations for Change,” Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, Special Issue: Adoption 9, no. 4 (2000): 361–72. Post also cites other researchers who have noted the absence, including J. Terrell and J. Modell, “Anthropology and Adoption,” American Anthropologist 96 (1994): 155–67; K. Wegar, “Adoption and Mental Health: A Theoretical Critique of the Psychopathological Model,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 65 (1995): 540–48; A. Jones, “Issues Relevant to Therapy with Adoptees,” Journal of Psychotherapy 34 (1994): 64–68; and I. Altman, “Higher Education and Psychology in the Millennium,” American Psychologist 51 (1996): 371–78.
17. Allen Fisher, “Still Not Quite as Good as Having Your Own? Toward a Sociology of Adoption,” Annual Review of Sociology 29 (2003): 335–61.
18. Adoptees’ Liberty Movement Association, http://www.almasociety.org, The ALMA Society, P.O. Box 85, Denville, NJ 07834.
19. Concerned United Birthparents, http://www.cubirthparents.org, P.O. Box 503475, San Diego, CA 92150. For a history of CUB, see also E. Wayne Carp, Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclos
ure in the History of Adoption, 204.
20. SunflowerFirstMoms-Reunited, http://groups.yahoo.com/SunflowerFirstMoms-Reunited, and SunflowerFirstMoms-Searching, http://groups.yahoo.com/SunflowerFirstMoms-searching/.
21. OriginsUSA, http://www.originsusa.org/.
22. First Mothers Reunited, http://www.firstmothers.net/.
23. Empty Arms, http://www.emptyarms.org/.
CHAPTER 9: SEARCH AND REUNION
1. For a complete overview of the history of adoption records, see E. Wayne Carp, Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998).
2. American Adoption Congress, http://www.americanadoptioncongress.org/.
3. Bastard Nation, http://www.bastards.org/. See Web site for information about birth-certificate access in individual states and legislation currently under consideration, as well as for lists of books and other links related to adoptees’ rights. Bastard Nation, P.O. Box 271672, Houston, TX 77277, 415-704-3166.
4. National Adoption Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/. Search: State Statutes, then Post Adoption, “Access to Family Information by Adopted Persons: Summary of State Laws.”
5. Volunteer Search Network, http://www.vsn.org.
6. Melisha Mitchell et al., “Mutual Consent Voluntary Registries: An Exercise in Patience and Failure,” Adoptive Families (January/February 1999). Also online at http://www.americanadoptioncongress.org/.
7. Carp, Family Matters, 140–41.
8. The ALMA Society, Inc., http://www.almasociety.org/, or P.O. Box 85, Denville, NJ, 07834. The $50 lifetime membership fee entitles members to a list of support-group coordinators around the country and to enrollment in the registry’s database. Florence Fisher’s book The Search for Anna Fisher chronicles the story of Fisher’s search for her daughter and the founding of ALMA.
9. Statistics as of October 2005, provided by Marri Rillea. The Soundex International Soundex Reunion Registry, http://www.isrr.net/, P.O. Box 2312, Carson City, NV, 89702, 775-882-7755.
10. Statistics as of July 1, 2005, provided by Janice Pitts. The Oregon Registry and a link to obtaining preadoption birth records can be found at http://oregon.gov/DHS/children/adoption/adopt_registry/registry.shtml.