Here’s a review from yesterday’s judiciary committee meeting with Senator Aisha Wahab and the California Alliance for Adoptee Rights. It’s a privilege to contribute to this conversation and help move forward the case of open records for adopted people. Next: appropriations!

I’m proud of CAAR for the solidarity with all adopted people, and for holding the line for a clean bill. The fight in California continues.

New #WeCount data: Preliminary findings make it unmistakably clear that telehealth is a cornerstone of abortion access in the US. Key findings: there were approximately 1.1 million abortions in 2025, and 28% of abortions in December 2025 were provided via telehealth. societyfp.org/research/wec...

Just a reminder as this case continues to move forward: The actual scientific evidence supports *expanding* access to medication abortion, not restricting it.

If this stands, it will block more abortions than the Dobbs decision. www.usnews.com/news/politic...

Got blocked for this one! For what it’s worth, it’s fine to not know things about adoption — but you can approach with curiosity rather than indignation and dismissal.

It’s so weird to me when people who know nothing about adoption just confidently assert things that are demonstrably untrue about it.

Crimes of the accused adoption worker were also overlooked by the adoption agency, which facilitated the adoption despite knowing the birth mother had been lied to by a doctor who told her her child had died, when in fact the grandmother had privately requested the adoption. buff.ly/TDPBt7S 🥚

Yvette Lindgren & I have a new essay recently accepted by Southern California Law Review! "The Post-Dobbs Abortion Irony" explores how abortion bans only seem to be chilling medically necessary abortions while everyday abortions are increasing everywhere. 1/4 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I’m honored to be reading as part of this Words as Lifelines series Sunday night at 6pm ET, along with @alandettlaff.com & @gretchensisson.bsky.social, talking adoption, family policing, repro justice & more, to benefit families in Gaza. Donate & join us if you can: form.jotform.com/joonae/lifel...

I’m adopted, not donor-conceived. But I lived the first 4 decades of my life in a state of genetic bewilderment. I think it lowers self-esteem and breeds a kind of dysmorphia. Living in my skin was like wearing some unknown person’s clothes. It took reunion for me to feel truly at home in my body. 🥚

Excited to share that RELINQUISHED is available in paperback next Tuesday! If you don’t yet have a copy, be sure to visit your local bookstore to grab a copy. Thank you to everyone who has supported this book on its journey thus far — I’m forever grateful to you. 📚

Mullin continues a long tradition of adoptive parents legislating on their personal experience of a system designed to benefit them. I wonder what will happen to children separated from their parents by borders on his watch.

"To me, as a mother who was manipulated into relinquishing her son, this 'third option' [of adoption] isn’t a bridge — it’s a trap draped in the language of bravery. It is dangerous, expensive propaganda."

SB381 has unanimously passed the California Senate! A huge step forward. On to the assembly!

You did not bear the shame. You resisted. You bestowed the eternally vigilant symbol of change by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honour. — The German Resistance Memorial in Berlin

NEW: An Atlanta-area crisis pregnancy center has raked in more than $1 million from an unusual source: the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The CPC is opening a maternity home, worrying advocates that residents may be coerced into relinquishing children for adoption. @autonomynews.co

Senator Weiner "no matter what we do, some people will end up not being pleased, but here we have an opportunity to do something that will make 100% of adoptees happy and the vast majority of birth parents happy as well"

The conversation in front of the health committee today is infuriating. We’re devoting infinite time to this hypothetical group of birth mothers who don’t want their children to have access to their records. I’ve spoken to so many birth mothers. I’ve never met this woman.

Open records for adopted people has passed the California judiciary committee. Unanimously. On to the health committee tomorrow.

In Sacramento at the senate judiciary committee hearing, advocating for the rights of CA-born adopted people to access their own records. I am concerned about tomorrow’s health committee hearing. If you are in CA, you can call the health committee senators (see below) & advocate in support of SB381.

Indian boarding schools sought to strip Native children of their culture. Now, the Trump administration seeks to strip their stories from the historical record while opening ancestral lands for pillage and plunder.

Working on my letter to the CA senate judiciary committee right now! CA-born adopted people deserve access to their records. Link below to learn how to offer your support.

No. No. No. Punitive processes make narrowly targeted programs *less* efficient and *more* costly. Because more scrutiny requires more bureaucracy. Punitive processes also make it *less* likely that people will get aid for which they qualify. Because of the roadblocks and stigma scrutiny creates.

First mothers need support, not baby boxes. I discussed this on Al Jazeera. Real support = housing, healthcare, childcare, help & community. When we invest in mothers, we invest in keeping families together. #FamilyPreservation #FirstMothers #adoption @gretchensisson.bsky.social #AlJazeera 🥚

Many things can be true. This policy is racist. *And* transnational adoption into the US is a dying industry that has always been rooted in white saviorism, evangelicalism, predation, lies, and the exploitation geopolitical conflict or natural disaster.

I can, but they’re probably not the same as the Trump Administration’s reasons.

Glad to be included in this conversation with “Liberty Lost”’s @tjraphael.bsky.social from the Concerned United Birthparent conference. I believe this is the first mainstream critical coverage of the adoption tax credit — an important step in the conversation to align our investment with our values.

I used to make a podcast called ACCESS, and there are a few episodes that continue to get a steady stream of downloads even though they're years old. My episode about adoption, which included an interview with @gretchensisson.bsky.social, is one! Small snippet here: www.instagram.com/p/ChsfdetD6Gt/

Sign up for an annual subscription to @autonomynews.co and get a signed copy of @gretchensisson.bsky.social’s excellent book!

in honor of #NAAM, here are some of my favorite books about adoption that you should definitely read. 🥚

there are a lot of good adoption books (and a lot of really bad ones) but i want to take a second during #NAAM to recommend “Relinquished” by @gretchensisson.bsky.social. mandatory reading if you want to have any kind of informed conversation about adoption in 2025. 🥚

Pleased to share this guest post on ‘Abortion, Every Day’ discussing modern day maternity homes. These homes function differently from pre-Roe homes, but ultimately serve the same regressive aims — with familiar coercive means. Thanks @jessicavalenti.bsky.social! open.substack.com/pub/jessica/...

Featured story: “The whole system is premised on commodifying human beings, regardless of whether or not it’s a for-profit or a nonprofit agency. And anytime you’re talking about people as a commodity, I don’t know what that looks like to do ethically.”

I’ve you haven’t had a chance to listen to “Liberty Lost,” now’s the time.

I have done a deeply mediocre job of connecting with folks here after leaving X (ok, that’s generous), and am having a hard time easily plugging in to the folks I was connected to there. Did that include you? Please say hi so I can get my footing here a little more easily.

So glad to be part of this. Please come, please donate, please support. 🥚🍉 form.jotform.com/251837268680...

People on the replies being like “this is trafficking, not adoption” you are *so close.* Abbi’s story on Liberty Lost is powerful and disturbing and I’m so glad it’s being told. But it’s not unique to just her or even to Liberty — this is the system.

I am often asked: what about gay people who want to adopt? I actually think it’s really important to push back on this question, and any question that centers prospective adoptive parents. Adoption isn’t — or at least shouldn’t be — about sourcing babies for people who want them.

A very belated congratulations to Gretchen Sisson for her powerful & revelatory book RELINQUISHED: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood, an immaculately researched book about appalling levels inequality, cruelty, entitlement masquerading as the right to motherhood.

Looking forward to this conversation with @cameronrussell.bsky.social on May 27. If you’re in the Boston area, please join us — and spread the word!

this is so difficult, because some of my all-time favorite books were published over the last three years. but the book i wish everyone would read, because of the perspective shift it can and does bring about, is this one: @gretchensisson.bsky.social ‘s RELINQUISHED.

Our panel included @sarahreinhardt.bsky.social (co- host), @thesusanito.bsky.social @gretchensisson.bsky.social @monicahallauthor.bsky.social, Kristal Parke, Greg Gentry and Chris Williams. Adoptees sharing, educating and connecting in California! www.adoptionthemakingofme.com

I'm partnering with fellow authors @renee.bsky.social @thesweetfeminist.bsky.social and Sabia Wade to support All-Options, an incredible organization that provides meaningful, free, unbiased options counseling for the repro movements. Donate for books (& candy!) docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

New White House Faith Office will be promoting faith-based foster care and adoption programs.

When you search on the modified CDC website for "abortion," the results suggest searching for "adoption" as well. If this search suggestion is new, this is obviously deeply disturbing and reveals a lot about how this administration thinks about reproductive autonomy and pregnancy decision making.

hey if you want to hear @gretchensisson.bsky.social talk about the adoption movie plenty of birth parents (and plenty of adoptees including me) absolutely *hate*, check this out! 🥚

💙⛅THE SUN WON'T COME OUT TOMORROW⛅💙 is out TODAY and I am thrilled and honored by this perceptive review in @washingtonpost.com by @gretchensisson.bsky.social wapo.st/3PLsDjG (gift link)

A pleasure to review @kwistent.bsky.social's new book "The Sun Won't Come Out Tomorrow." Pick up your copy this week.

An incredible honor to be in this company. Thank you to the National Book Critics Circle.