Daniel Williams: Undisputed Father Fights For His Rights
By Mirah Riben Read at the Source: : Mirah Riben on the Huffington Post
Articles by Mirah Riben
Help Is Needed For International Adoptees Caught In A Legal — And Stateless — Quagmire
By Mirah Riben Read at the Source: : Mirah Riben on the Huffington Post
Adoption-Related Trauma and Moral Injury
By Mirah Riben When most people think of adoption, they think of the joy of a child in need being welcomed with open arms by those who longed for a child. Like a fairy tale! And when we think of trauma, we think of losing limbs, or eyesight. We think of war … Read at the Source: : Mirah Riben on the Huffington Post
Family Preservation
By Mirah Riben If your neighbor lost his job a year after his wife died, and he had three small kids, would you “help” him by taking away his kids? If a family in your church or congregation’s house burnt down and they had no family to stay with, would you help them by adopting their infant child? Recently, Ronnie Stewart a Florida minister of the Refuge Church of New…
A Mother’s Love: Creating Gracie’s Bill
By Mirah Riben A mother’s love, loss and determination has greatly impacted social awareness and created organizations such as MADD, founded by Cindy Lightner, and the well-known Amber Alert system, which Donna Norris created. The power of another mother’s love also created the Make a Wish Foundation. All of these women, and others such as the parents in Sandy Hook, turned the loss of their children into a passion-driven effort…
The Drama and Facts in the Battle Over Little Lexi
By Mirah Riben Most of us have heard, seen or read about a six-year-old girl named Lexi who was ordered to be taken from those who fostered her for the past four years in Santa Clarita, California. The court of public opinion and social media are sympathetic and supportive of Lexi’s foster parents, Rusty and Summer Page. This is very understandable since the Pages have seemingly done nothing but provide…
Stop this Injustice: Save Adam Crapser
By Mirah Riben Adam Crapser is a loving father. He is also Korean-born American adoptee who has been subjected to and survived a failed adoption and extreme and sustained child abuse. Now, the country that promised Adam a good family and a better life continues to punish him for its own failing systems. Like other immigrant families impacted by deportation and detention. Adam has been unjustly detained by Immigration and…
Infertility: The Important Missing Piece in Health Education Classes
By Mirah Riben Why would adolescents need to be concerned with infertility, one might wonder? The answer is that, since fertility is precarious, decreases with age, and is negatively impacted by common adolescent behaviors, it is important to be cognizant of these risk factors to avoid than anguish of infertility. “Abstinence Only” sexuality education curriculum is mandated in order for American public schools to obtain federal funding. Opting out of…
Why All U.S. States Should Allow Adoptees Access to Their Authentic Birth Certificates
By Mirah Riben At the present time only six U.S. states allow adopted citizens unrestricted access to their own authentic birth certificates (AL, AK, CO, KS, ME, OR). Eight other states allow access but with restrictions that do not apply to non-adoptees in those states. Oregon, which granted adoptees access to their birth certificates nearly two decades ago, has now gone a step further and become the most liberal state…
Abortion, Adoption and the Destruction of Family and Parental Rights
The Right has taken a complex issue and narrowed it down to a catch phrase – “Adoption not Abortion” – that arbitrarily and narrowly defines it in black and white terms, positing adoption as the solution to reduce abortion. The debate over when life begins will be left to others. Presenting adoption as an alternative to abortion is an absurd premise. Abortion is a choice to not be pregnant. Carrying…
The Hottest Gift This Holiday Season: Human Babies?
By Mirah Riben A 47-year-old Georgia woman was arrested after attempting to illegally obtain a baby for her teenage daughter. Detectives started investigating Elaine Williams after a citizen called police about a suspicious Craigslist ad. The post asked for unwanted babies, saying mothers could drop them off in a “baby box”. According to investigators, Williams was attempting to buy a baby for her 14-year-old daughter. Police say Williams told them…
Utah, Still the Baby-Stealing State and the On-Going War on Fathers
By Mirah Riben Robert Manzanares has been fighting for his constitutional right to nurture his daughter for an astounding eight years. Colby Nielsen’s case is currently unfolding. These are just two of the many fathers fighting Utah for virtually stealing their children and having them adopted without their fathers’ consent. Colby Nielsen and Kaylee Utah, LDS and Adoption Mormons are opposed to abortion and also to children being raised by…
End the Witch Hunt: In Defense of Dr. Robert Oscar Lopez
By Mirah Riben “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Evelyn Beatrice Hall, The Friends of Voltaire Dr. Robert Oscar Lopez is facing loss of tenure and his teaching position at the State University of California because of trumped up charges based on lies and reverse discrimination. Why do I care and why am I supporting…
Parental Equality, NOT “Adoption Equality”
By Mirah Riben Children need and deserve for both parents raising them to have full parental rights. Children need this regardless of their parents’ sexual orientation. Thus, same sex couples are fighting for what they are calling “adoption equality.” Every child, however, also deserves an unaltered true record of his birth, regardless of who has legal parental rights.Traditional adoption is not the best route to achieve these goals and the…
The Dark Side of Adoption
By Mirah Riben In the midst of all the happily-ever-after media coverage of adoption, now that it’s November, and National Adoption Month (NAM), it’s incumbent upon us to look at adoption realistically and even critically. The fact is that most adoptions are not saintly acts of altruism but simply the fulfillment of the adopters’ hopes and dreams. That means that adoption, adoptive parents, and adoptive families are as imperfect as…