The Women's Collective for Adoptee Equality is dedicated to restoring the rights of adult adopted persons by uniting with women who have lost children to adoption (“birth mothers”) to support adoptee-led advocacy for unrestricted adoptee rights legislation. Members are organizations created by and for women who lost children to adoption.
Our Strategic Focus
Reclaiming Privacy
Challenge the current culture's manipulation of privacy concepts to maintain secrecy. Demonstrate how current policies enforce secrecy, not privacy.
Amplifying Authentic Voices
Showcase how birth mother voices are co-opted to maintain discriminatory policies, while highlighting true birth mother support for adoptee rights.
Intersectional Rights
Expose how discriminatory adoption policies perpetuate harmful stereotypes about both adoptees and birth mothers, undermining everyone's autonomy.
Contemporary Reality
Highlight how DNA testing and modern technology have made closed adoption practices obsolete, emphasizing the need for updated rights legislation.
Our mission is to challenge the systemic use of secrecy in adoption, advocating for legislation that respects both adoptee rights and true privacy.
National Trend in Adoptee Equality by State
AK
KS
<1991
Adoptee equality means a state law is in place that protects an adult adopted persons’ unrestricted right to request their own original birth certificate.
AL
VT
MA
LA
AK
KS
1991
OR
AL
AK
KS
1998
NH
OR
AL
AK
KS
2005
ME
NH
OR
AL
AK
KS
2009
RI
ME
NH
OR
AL
AK
KS
2011
CO
RI
ME
NH
OR
AL
AK
KS
2014
NY
CO
RI
ME
NH
OR
AL
AK
KS
2019
CT
NY
CO
RI
ME
NH
OR
AL
AK
KS
2021
CT
NY
CO
RI
ME
NH
OR
AL
AK
KS
2022
SD
VT
MA
LA
CT
NY
CO
RI
ME
NH
OR
AL
AK
KS
2023
MN
SD
VT
MA
LA
CT
NY
CO
RI
ME
NH
OR
AL
AK
KS
2024
Member Organizations
National Trend in Adoptee Equality by State
Adoptee equality means a state law is in place that protects an adult adopted persons' unrestricted right to request their own original birth certificate.
| GA | ||||||||||||
| MN | MN | |||||||||||
| SD | SD | SD | ||||||||||
| VT | VT | VT | VT | |||||||||
| MA | MA | MA | MA | |||||||||
| LA | LA | LA | LA | |||||||||
| CT | CT | CT | CT | CT | ||||||||
| NY | NY | NY | NY | NY | NY | |||||||
| CO | CO | CO | CO | CO | CO | CO | ||||||
| RI | RI | RI | RI | RI | RI | RI | RI | |||||
| ME | ME | ME | ME | ME | ME | ME | ME | ME | ||||
| NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | |||
| AL | AL | AL | AL | AL | AL | AL | AL | AL | AL | AL | ||
| OR | OR | OR | OR | OR | OR | OR | OR | OR | OR | OR | OR | |
| AK | AK | AK | AK | AK | AK | AK | AK | AK | AK | AK | AK | AK |
| KS | KS | KS | KS | KS | KS | KS | KS | KS | KS | KS | KS | KS |
| <1998 | 1998 | 2000 | 2005 | 2009 | 2011 | 2014 | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |