The following excerpt is from an article by Susan K. Livio, posted at the February 11, 2014 edition of nj.com:
As an adopted person who also gave up her own child to another, Mari Steed of Levittown, Pa., said there isn’t much of the adoption experience she hasn’t lived.
So when Steed — co-founder of an adoption rights group in Ireland highlighted in the Oscar-nominated film “Philomena” — urged a state Assembly committee Monday to approve a bill letting adopted people obtain their birth certificates, she wasted no time attacking the myths that have blocked the legislation for 34 years.
When representatives from the New Jersey Catholic Conference, New Jersey Right to Life and the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union asked lawmakers to protect the privacy of birth mothers, Steed replied she was “very, very tired of listening to the opposition hiding behind our skirts and claiming we asked for privacy when we didn’t.”
Steed, one of 2,000 babies trafficked from an Ireland home for unwed mothers, said she was insulted by the idea that an adopted person would stalk a birth parent who didn’t want contact. “If someone said, “I can’t handle this, I’m not ready, we would back away. To imply otherwise … makes no sense. We just want to be treated with equality and respect.”
