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Mirah Riben . . .
Mirah Riben . . .. . . author and activist advocating for family preservation and for the rights of adoptees to their own original official birth certificate.
Since 1980 Mirah has researched, investigated, written, and spoken out to expose and oppose the corruption, coercion, exploitation, trafficking of children and their commodification in adoption and anonymous contract conception.
Riben is author of two internationally acclaimed books:
She has also authored more than two hundred fifty articles appearing in such publications as: Huffington Post, Medium, Dissident Voice, Crime Magazine, Courier-Post, News Blaze, OpEd, News, Conducive Magazine, USA Today, Counter
Currents, Associated Content, Utne Reader, Social Issues
Review, Macrocosm USA, Jersey Woman, Suburban Parent,
The Jewish Press, Family Journal, The Woman’s Newspaper of Princeton, and Mothering.
Her works are cited or quoted in more than eighty books,
► Riben is the only American author personally touched by adoption who has focused her work on the issues inherent in the adoption industry, not her own memoir.
► None of Riben's writings have ever been done for, nor garnered, any profit or financial gain, nor has this blog or FamilyPreservation.blogspot.com ever been monetized.
►The FULL TEXT of The Stork Market is available online as a FREE DOWNLOAD here and HERE.
See:
- Mirah on Twitter @MirahRiben
As a proponent of social justice and human rights, with a focus on the rights mothers, fathers, children and families in crisis, since 1980, Mirah (pronounced mĭr'ə or Meer-a, like Mira Sorvino or mirror-mirror on the wall. Not Myra) has been researching, investigating, and writing:
- In favor of Family Preserveration and replacing current adoption practices with "simple adoption" or Permanent Legal Guardianship.
- To end the falsification of birth certificates that claim adoptess were born to their adopters and restore equal access for adoptees who have been issued fraudulent birth certificates.
- In opposition of all profiteering, corruption, coercion in adoption.
- To expose the emotional, physical and sexual abuse in adoptive families including children rehomed, abandoned and murder by those who committed to protect and care for them.
- To end pre-birth matching and "expenses" paid directly from prospective adopters to expectant mothers. These practices, currently allowable in many states, are simply a rues for human trafficking and have no place in child welfare.They enmesh expectant mothers considering adoption with those seeking to adopt, creating false expectations for hopeful adopters and feelings of obligation and indebtedness for the mothers-to-be.
BOOKS:
THE STORK MARKET: America's Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry (2007).
- Click for REVIEWS of The Stork Market
- Out of print: FREE PDF download
The Dark Side of Adoption" (1988)
Excerpts of The Dark Side have appeared in:
In 1987 Michelle Launder's daughter was murdered by Joel Steinberg who illegally adopted the child he called Lisa. In the Steinberg apartment which was called a "house of horrors," a toddler boy - also illegally adopted - was found in a state of neglect. Mirah worked with authorities to reunite the child Steinberg and Nussbaum called Mitchell, with his original family, who had agreed to his adoption under duress.
She organized a Candlelight Vigil to honor Lisa and to bring attention to the need for adoption reform and adoptee access. It was covered on WNBC-TV New York.
Mirah's October 1989 presentation at the AAC Region 3 conference was entitled “In the ‘Best Interest’ of All: Equal Rights for Adopted-Separated Persons” spearheading a change of the language of adoptee access to their original, authentic birth certificates. Mirah argued that the terminology of seeking "open records" that had been creeping along state by state since the 1940's when adoptee birth certificates were first sealed, created images of invsion of others' privacy.
Mirah instead urged the adoption community to reframe the issue as what it was: an issue of denied eual human rights. She again presented this revised relabeling of adoptee access in her article: "Dear Bastards Demand Equality" which was published in the Spring/Summer 2006 Vol. 8, No 1, BastardQuarterly.
In April 2009, at the AAC in Cleveland, Mirah presented: "'Open Records' versus 'Equal Access: Reexamining our Goals" again encouraging adoption rights advocates yet again to stop asking for “open records,” and to frame their argument as one of equal rights. The button (above, right) was designed for that event.
Mirah has since gone further and demands states stop issuing falsified, fruadulent birth certificates.
Excerpts of The Dark Side have appeared in:
- Utne Reader, "A Last Resort," Nov/Dec, 1991, Vol. 4, pp 53-54
- Social Issues Review Series, 1991, Vol. 4
- Macrocosm USA, "A Last Resort," 1992, p. 147
AWARDS:
- 2009. Nominated National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Public Citizen of the Year
- 1997-1998. Who’s Who in American Women, 20th edition
- 1989. Recipient “Outstanding Achievement Award to an Author”, People Searching News
ACTIVISM:
Mirah was among the first mothers to go public in order to put on a face on women who lost children adoption - previously the "invisible party" - publicly exposing the lifelong pain of losing a child to adoption.
Risking imprisonment, Mirah reunited hundreds of families separated by adoption and helped mothers prevent unnecessary loss by providing temporary shelter in her home.
As an advocate of family preservation not adoption separation, Mirah seeks an end to the falsification of vital records and believe that adoption as it is currently practiced needs to be replaced with guardian adoption after all attempts to provide resources for children to remain safely within their extended family have been exhausted. Such permanent legal guardianship would give all necessary rights to caretakers without falsifying the adopted person's original birth certificate. It is in no person's best interest to have their vital records falsified, hiding the truth from the individuals whose records they are.
Mirah co-founded the original Origins in 1979. She is former Director of the American Adoption Congress, Past Vice President of Communications of Origins-USA, and a lifetime member of Bastard Nation.
She organized a Candlelight Vigil to honor Lisa and to bring attention to the need for adoption reform and adoptee access. It was covered on WNBC-TV New York.
In 1989, Mirah organized a speak-out at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. It was the culmination of a walk from New York City to Washington DC of adoptees, adoptive parents, and mothers who had lost children to adoption.
Below L - R: Mary Anne Cohen, Sherry Chait and Mirah
Also, that year, at the AAC national conference in NYC, Mirah organized a “red tape” event that garnered media attention to the issue of adoptees being denied access to their birth certificates.
Mirah instead urged the adoption community to reframe the issue as what it was: an issue of denied eual human rights. She again presented this revised relabeling of adoptee access in her article: "Dear Bastards Demand Equality" which was published in the Spring/Summer 2006 Vol. 8, No 1, BastardQuarterly.
In April 2009, at the AAC in Cleveland, Mirah presented: "'Open Records' versus 'Equal Access: Reexamining our Goals" again encouraging adoption rights advocates yet again to stop asking for “open records,” and to frame their argument as one of equal rights. The button (above, right) was designed for that event.
Mirah has since gone further and demands states stop issuing falsified, fruadulent birth certificates.
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Mirah has been keynote, invited speaker, and panel member at numerous national and state adoption conferences such as:
- The Evolution of Adoption Practice: Activist and Community Perspectives, Adoption Initiative Biennial Conference 2020/2022, St. John's University in Collaboration with Montclair State University, Ensuring Ethical Practice in Child Adoption
- Adoption Law Institute, Adoption Law Institute, PLI New York Center, NY, 2009
- Open Arms, Open Minds: The Ethics of Adoption In The 21st Century Conference, St. Johns University, NY, 2010
- The Association for Research on Mothering Conference, York University, Toronto, Canada 2009. "Mothering and the Environment."
- The 6th Annual PLI Adoption Law Institute Conference panel, “Costs of Adoption: A Survey and Ethical Considerations” 2009.
- Adoption Community of New England on The Universality of Losing a Child to Adoption April 17, 2010; and at Adoption Ethics and Accountability Conference, Oct. 15-16, 2007, EBSAI and Ethics.
- The 7th Annual NJ Research Conference on Women, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, May, 1989
- The 2007 Adoption Ethics and Accountability Conference sponsored by The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and Ethica, Inc., Arlington, Va.
Bloggers at the Ethics in Adoption Conference 2009.
L-R: Claudia D'Arcy, Suz Bednarz, Bernadette Wright, Mirah Riben
Mirah has appeared as an adoption expert on Russian-American TV numerous times to discuss the abuse, murder, and abandonment of Russian adopted children that led to the ban on Russian adoptions.
Mirah has also appeared on several national television programs including The Morton Downey Jr. Show and The Joan Rivers Show to discuss the Steinberg/Nussbaum murder of their illegally adopted child.
Most recently Mirah began hosting the Facebook Group, Survivors of Adopee Suicide.
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Governor Christie signing The NJ Adoptee Birthright Access Bill, 2016
In this old blog post, Mirah shares her thoughts on whether her involvement in adoption is an Obsession or Commitment.
