8/10/2021
Adoptive Parents: Add 'American Baby' to Your Reading List | David Grislis: Adoption & Foster Care
a
Adoptive Parents: Add ‘American Baby’ to Your Reading List by David Grislis | Aug 10, 2021 | Adoption & Foster Care, David Grislis
Adoptive parents and children may wonder about the real history of adoption. Closed adoptions were the norm until about the mid-1970s. Before then, teenage and unmarried pregnant women were usually scandalized, sent to homes for unwed pregnant girls and women or to other relatives. They were expected to give the baby up for adoption once it was born. Though premarital sex was actually quite common, even discussing childbirth was considered taboo and scandalous. Simultaneously, effective birth control wasn’t around yet, abortion was dangerous and illegal. What is less well-known, however, is that those adoptions were often very cruelly forced. Author Gabrielle Glaser documented one such unfortunate case in a biography titled davidgrislis.org/adoptive-parents-add-american-baby-to-your-reading-list/
1/4
8/10/2021
Adoptive Parents: Add 'American Baby' to Your Reading List | David Grislis: Adoption & Foster Care
American Baby: A Mother, A Child and the Shadow History of Adoption. American Baby centers on a woman named Margaret Erle who got pregnant at the age of 16 in 1961. As was common at that time, her family became enraged and sent her to a home like the one described above. The day her son was born, she wasn’t even allowed to hold him and the social workers threatened her with prison unless she signed her parental rights away. Margaret went on to live a decent life. She eventually married her son’s father and ended up having several more children with him. However, she always wondered what became of her firstborn son. Simultaneously, David always wondered about the true story of his birth and adoption. What neither of them knew was that he was actually living just a few blocks away from Margaret. Convinced that they were acting in everyone’s best interests, adoption agencies and other related organizations teamed up with doctors and made all kinds of unethical deals. They basically involved “assessments” that were based on some of the pseudoscientific bias of the time, coercing the girls and women to give up their babies immediately after birth. From there, they would present fabricated stories about the babies’ births to the adoptive parents to convince them to adhere to a closed adoption. In almost all cases, the adoptive parents felt obligated to comply. Even though open adoptions are the rule now, many more adoptive adult children are still having to go through the courts to open their adoption records.
Search
RECENT POSTS Adoptive Parents: Add ‘American Baby’ to Your Reading List Dealing With Rejection as an Adoptive Parent Online Resources for New Adoptive Parents The Best Books for New Foster Families How to Help Orphans for Those Who Can’t Adopt
ARCHIVES August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 davidgrislis.org/adoptive-parents-add-american-baby-to-your-reading-list/
2/4
8/10/2021
Adoptive Parents: Add 'American Baby' to Your Reading List | David Grislis: Adoption & Foster Care
April 2021 March 2021 January 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 November 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 August 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 June 2017 May 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 August 2016 July 2016 davidgrislis.org/adoptive-parents-add-american-baby-to-your-reading-list/
3/4
8/10/2021
Adoptive Parents: Add 'American Baby' to Your Reading List | David Grislis: Adoption & Foster Care
June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015
CATEGORIES Adoption & Foster Care David Grislis Uncategorized
META Site Admin Log out Entries feed Comments feed WordPress.org
© David Grislis 2021
davidgrislis.org/adoptive-parents-add-american-baby-to-your-reading-list/
4/4