On
October1, 2001, Adoption:
Legalized Lies introduced 1-866-4 1 TRUTH, a hotline designed
to provide information and support to expectant families who
may be considering adoption.
Calls
to the hotline will be answered by true parents and adopted
adults, who can give families the information that they would
not hear from an adoption agency or socialworker.
"We
want them to understand that by surrendering their babies to
adoption, they are opening themselves and their children up
to a lifetime of psychological trauma," says Kay Russell,
a true mother and volunteer with Adoption: Legalized Lies (A.L.L.).
Many
A.L.L.members have spent years researching the adoption industry
and its effects on families. According to Jess DelBalzo, the
organization's founder, "These are the facts they won't
tell you in an adoption agency. The workers there want to get
babies for adoption and the adopters pay their bills. They aren't
going to dissuade an expectant mother, even if they know the
adoption will hurt her."
Some of the facts Adoption: Legalized Lies wants to communicate
through their hotline include information on the psychological
ramifications for surrendering parents, as well as the consequences
for adopted people.
According
to the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, there are
a disproportionate number of adopted youngsters in juvenile
treatment facilities. In addition, profiling has shown that
76% of the world's serial killers were adopted as children.
Attachment disorders, identity issues, and an array of other
psychological problems are all associated with being adopted.
Research
into the effects of adoption on surrendering parents includes
higher incidentsof depression, secondary infertility, post-traumatic
stress disorder, living to extremes, and a myriad of other psychological
problems. Feelings of guilt, regret, loss, and anger are among
the emotions that many true parents associate with the adoption
of their children. Coercion on the part of agencies and would-be
adopters is ever-present in the adoption arena.
Carol
Evans became active in Adoption: Legalized Lies after she almost
lost her grandson in January of this past year. Her son and
his girlfriend were pressured by a church-based adoption agency
in Kentucky. "The social workers told them they would be
angels and heroes. They made them feel worthless as parents,
even though they had support from all of their extended family."
she reports.
Fortunately, Evans' grandson went home with his parents shortly
after his birth. However, they didn't escape from the grips
of the adoption agency without a lengthy and expensive court
battle.
In hopes of protecting other families from the adoption industry,
the hotline will provide not only information on the effects
of adoption but will also give parents ways to keep their children.
Callers will be directed to sources of financial and moral support
in their community, and several A.L.L. members are even willing
to open their homes to new parents in desperate circumstances.
The volunteers who will be answering calls to the hotline are
proud of their work. Says DelBalzo, "They've been there.
They know what it's like to be pressured,and they know how it
will turn out in the end. Now they only care about saving others
from the same trauma."
The
hotline, 1-866-4 1 TRUTH will be available 24 hours a day, seven
days a week beginning October 1, 2001.
