Ann Fessler's Everlasting

Have you heard of Ann Fessler? She is the adoptee who wrote "The Girls Who Went Away." If you have not read her book, you must do so. She wrote this book from a place of complete compassion for the birthmothers of yesterday. She put out this video here recently. I am hoping to draw more attention to her fabulous work.

As a Coleman adoptee, this woman helped me to understand exactly what my birthmother went through during her time at Suemma Coleman Home for Unwed Mothers. I have heard from several Coleman mothers and also heard their stories up close and personal. This maternity home was no different than many of the homes across America.

Her book opened many doors for adoptees across this country. I believe that it is a book that every adoptee, birthmother, and adoptive parent should read. I have met so many people that do not have any compassion or care for many of these women. They have to see that these women did not have choices prior to the years of Roe vs. Wade. That many of these women were coerced every step of the way. These women if they had been giving the choices of today would have chosen to raise their sons or daughters.

In this video by Ann Fessler, she shows that with many of the women that she has interviewed over the years. She also shows the coercion, the falsification of documentation, the mythology of the adoption industry, and so many other issues with these women's stories. She shows that these birthmothers were not the sluts, whores, crack addicts, and drug addicts as the adoption industry loves to depict. They were and are still today reproductive members of our society. You would be startled at how many of them are so much more than this mythology. These birthmothers are not shrinking violets but strong, powerful, beautiful, intelligent, and gracious women.

Ann Fessler has done many things for the movement of adoptee rights. She has pushed forward and dispelled many of these myths. I for one thank her for the immense help that she has given adoptees and their families.