Taken at Birth: Stolen Babies, Hidden Lies, and My Journey to Finding Home

by Jane Blasio

From the 1940s through the 1960s, young pregnant women entered the front door of a clinic in a small North Georgia town. Sometimes their babies exited out the back, sold to northern couples who were desperate to hold a newborn in their arms. But these weren't adoptions--they were transactions. And one unethical doctor was exploiting other people's tragedies.Jane Blasio was one of those babies. At six, she learned she was adopted. At fourteen, she first saw her birth certificate, which led her to begin piecing together details of her past. Jane undertook a decades-long personal investigation to not only discover her own origins but identify and reunite other victims of the Hicks Clinic human trafficking scheme. Along the way she became an expert in illicit adoptions, serving as an investigator and telling her story on every major news network.Taken at Birth is the remarkable account of her tireless quest for truth, justice, and resolution. Perfect for book clubs, as well as those interested in inspirational stories of adoption, human trafficking, and true crime.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, True Crime, Biography, Crime, Audiobook, Adoption

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 13, 2021

Reviews

[Susan Rankin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very difficult book to follow. After reading it I’m not sure I can tell who her mother is. Did anyone else figure it out? I get that she was able to trace her DNA to her maternal and paternal families. But that’s it. The writing is also very challenging to follow.

[Bonnie DeMoss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taken At Birth by Jane Blasio is the story of Blasio’s struggle to find her birth family, as well as the birth families of hundreds of other people after finding out about a baby-selling operation in a small town in Georgia. It all revolved around a hometown doctor, Thomas J Hicks, in the small town of McCaysville, Georgia.

Blasio’s struggle with uncooperative townspeople and her own anger and loss of faith makes for a fascinating read. Her journey to find not just her family, but her faith again is poignant. Her determination to find out the truth from a town that was mostly unwilling to give it up is admirable. She details her anger at her own adoptive parents, who were unwilling to reveal much information until right before their deaths. The book contains stories of some of the birth mothers and their dealings with Dr. Hicks, and shows his heartless, selfish, and creepy personality very well. Overall, this is a compelling read. Anyone interested in true crime stories and stories of family separation will enjoy this book.

There is also a six episode series, Taken at Birth, which aired on TLC in 2019.

I received a free copy of this book from Baker Books. My review is voluntary

[Una · Rating 2 out of 5]

The actual story of a horrible “doctor” is fascinating and I wish the author focused more on that then her own fragmented and very hard to follow story. She should have hired help as many others have mentioned as her writing is all over the place.

[Nancy Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this book announced in a Yahoo news article which was quite well-written and intrigued me so much that I preordered it immediately. When I read the article, I presumed it was a trad published book from a Big 4 publishing house. Since when do major news outlets give free advertising to indie books?

I think this has been the very first time this has ever happened outside of brief mini articles applauding Sci-Fi bestseller indie novels that obtained trad deals like Wool or The Martian. From the nice cover of the book, the article managed to fool me very well.

Notice I have never watched the TLC documentary series but I do remember cable tv announcing commercials for it. This is the very first time I have ever heard of the Hicks clinic so I was entering the book with a completely open mind.

In a way, I feel torn about the book. On one hand, I applaud the author for sharing such a personal and difficult journey, alongside getting permission from other Hicks Clinic babies/birth mothers as they became known over the years to share their stories. It seems so unsettling to read the depravity of domestic abuse suffered from women as recently as 40 years ago and the huge strides women rights have advanced. This makes it hard to put myself in the shoes of the teenage birth mothers that gave up their babies without the proper legal paperwork or far more ominous, the social acceptance of violence against young men such as Charlie just because he was dating a young woman he liked by jealous villagers. Far worse, I also found it utterly reprehensible how patients that suffered blatant malpractice from Dr. Hicks didn't engage in a large scale lawsuit. The book hints there was a lot of corruption at the time but never really delves into what happened to him at the end other than he died in the early 1970's from leukemia.

While I enjoyed the author's voice and how she pours her difficult life story for all to see, this book was like a diamond in the rough so to speak. If she had hired a really good editor that specialized in crime memoirs to organize the chapters a whole deal better and close the haphazard loose ends, this book would have been really awesome.

As such, it feels sort of anticlimactic when we finally discover Jane locates the paternal side of her family after she gets a home DNA test just a few years ago, but we never find out if she located her potential mother or the whereabouts of Kittie's lost children. Dr. Hicks ends up facing a jury probably due to malpractice but the book doesn't even mention if he was declared guilty and served any time or only lost his license. We don't even find out if the clinic is still abandoned today or the locked office in the downtown residence owned by Dr. Hicks had anything useful such as medical records.

One thing that stroke me very odd about the book is that Jane has worked for the FBI according to the introduction, and while it would make sense she made a lot of rookie mistakes at first during her search, the fact she didn't have access to DNA tests that would have helped her discover the existence of her lost sibling a lot sooner seems odd. As a full-fledged FBI agent, the author would have been able to get a search warrant to visit Dr. Hick's office to search for incriminating evidence. If not just to locate babies that were illegally sold, to discover if the rumors are true he buried deceased babies somewhere and uncover them.

I also wondered if any of the Hicks babies suffered from horrible legal cases that afflict approximately 19,000 adopted Americans today where they are rendered legally stateless because there is no true proof the babies were even born in US soil in the first place because the birth certificates are forgeries. A lot of international adopted babies in the 60's and 70's entered the US with a birth certificate but no other solid proof of relinquishment of paternity from their birth mothers. It wasn't until after 9/11 when the US started to demand passports for American citizens to enter the country from both land borders. It would make a lot of sense at least one of these Hicks clinic babies would get tangled into a huge legal nightmare the instant they tried to get a US passport to travel abroad or vote in US elections. They might have even managed to get a passport and have a baby with a non US citizen abroad assuming their child obtained automatic US citizenship, only to discover consular officials deny their petition and they start a tedious legal battle to get a Green Card. I would have felt very curious to know if any of the Hick's Clinic babies suffered from this particular legal problem and the outcome.

If the book had been trad published, I would have been a lot harsher in my review because trad publishing houses would have hired a large set of eyes and an experienced ghost writer to polish the prose to fill out every loose end. As it is, despite being an imperfect book, I did enjoy reading it very much and learn more about such a dark chapter of US history that should not be forgotten.

3 1/2 stars!

[Chelsea Johnston · Rating 2 out of 5]

While an interesting story in general, the writing is a hot mess. The author going around in circles and repeating herself too many times. How did an editor not notice this or point it out!? It makes it hard to read and enjoy because it feels like no matter how much you read you end up at the beginning again. Like the author in her journey no real progress is ever made.

Which leads me to as stated the story is interesting and a great idea but is unfinished. The author using other peoples stories to help fill the missing gaps of her own. There is also almost no validity to them as she admits in the beginning she is retelling and adding in details she imagines or sees fit. She sprinkles the stories in to fill in space and most are incomplete.

*spoiler* the ending being that yes she does find SOME family but never tells who her birth mother ACTUALLY is although it is clear she knows because her family probably told her. At the end choosing to make the last 2 chapters about her love of God and throwing off the entire esthetic of what she had going. Its a great story and has the curiosity factor but honestly this is a story that can be told by almost any baby that was sold at the Hicks clinic and I'm sure there are stories way more interesting than hers that could be better written with more concrete details and information. don't just take others stories and make them your own, give them credit and state the facts.

[Craig Amason · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most interesting part of this book, the horrific practices of an immoral physician over the span of two decades, unfortunately takes a back seat to the author's quest for finding her birth mother. The book could have been much better in the hands of a seasoned journalist with the skills not only to investigate the awful deeds of Dr. Hicks, but also to write on a level worthy of such an important subject. I'm sure Blasio is a nice person, and she has certainly endured some serious mental and emotional blows in her life, but she is just not a good writer. Her unnecessary attempts to build suspense in the first part of the book crumble into annoying redundancy and sensationalism. Her efforts to make her story engaging and even entertaining come off sounding rather juvenile, as if she were writing a Nancy Drew mystery novel.

I am very familiar with the town of McCaysville, Georgia, where Dr. Hicks's clinic was located. I have visited there many times going all the way back to the mid-1970s. While it is certainly provincial with many of the common characteristics of small, rural towns in north Georgia, I don't believe it is nearly as foreboding as Blasio makes it sound. Business owners there are accustomed to out-of-town folks -- the economy of that whole region of the state lives or dies on tourism. I fear she exaggerates a bit for effect. The final section of the book is completely devoted to her attempts to reconnect with her blood relatives, which she does with mixed success. It is at this point that Blasio gets overly sentimental, sounding at times like a poorly written Hallmark card. I gave the book two stars because I truly think it was "ok" but just not nearly what it could have been given the nature of her subject.

[🩶 April • A.M. Flynn • 🩶]

DNF can’t follow the story at all

[Dixie Dylla · Rating 1 out of 5]

An interesting story that I had seen the docudrama prior to the books publishing. I was really looking forward to reading Jane’s story. She should have hired a professional author or at least a ghost writer to write this book. Sadly, this disappointing book turned out to be a somewhat interesting story told by a rank amateur. So difficult to follow… rambling here and there… with bits of historical fiction thrown in for good measure. I finished the book, and was thrilled it was finally over. I struggled to give this book 2-stars. It’s probably really 1-star.
Note to self: if I ever think I can write a book about my somewhat interesting life, ask close friends to talk me out of it!

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very interesting story about a rural doctor with some shady practices to include selling babies out the back door. Written by a woman who, I’m sure, felt compelled to tell her story. The writing was confusing & just not cohesive at times.

[Kimberly Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so enjoyed every bit of this author’s journey. She took me on a wild ride with totally unbelievable facts thrown in along the way. Hearing her personality through the pages made the book interesting and believable. The adoption history and investigation she did was thorough and impressive.
With two adopted daughters, this book hit close to home. It was a wonderful, redemptive story that I know many will enjoy like I did!!!!

[Linneah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I find memoirs hard to review because they're so personal. The author doesn't owe their readers any more information than they want to share but I was left wanting more. I feel like I have many unanswered questions that I expected answers to while I read this. I don't feel like I learned much about the author. Still, this book was beautifully written - vulnerable and raw in places and it told a fascinating story while protecting the people it was about. A definite motivation for me to do more independent research.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for marketing purposes. I was not required to leave a review. All opinions are my own.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so intrigued by the sound of this one incident among many, and eager to learn more about the subject of illegal adoptions. What I read instead (before finally having enough and quitting) was a rambling story full of run-on sentences, excessive and unnecessary geographical descriptions, and overly dramatic retellings of other peoples' stories. Which read as being heavily embellished with details that would likely have not been shared or included by the person who actually lived through the events.

I also found it incredibly hard to read when overly sentimental religious musings were preached at every opportunity. One in particular hit me as rather heavy-handed, and left me feeling uncomfortable, to put it lightly. Pair that with the frequent referring of women with fertility issues as "barren" (in a book published in 2021, we are still using a rather insensitive, antiquated term, it seems,) and I couldn't go on.

As far as my interest in the subject matter goes, I'll seek the cold hard facts and stats that I crave from another source of information.

[LeeAnn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is short, succinctly written. The tv show is better done.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Everyone should have a porch to sit on and linger for a while, to clear their mind and contemplate life and what means the most...sort of a wishing well...sometimes in reality and sometimes in dreams...Thousands of pieces and bits of memory...strewn across the wooden floorboards...like metallic gold and silver confetti” through which to sift.

Taken at Birth is Jane Blasio’s front porch invitation to “adventures...embedded with the truth of what love is” and “accounts of how a life was interrupted by, well, by life.” It all starts with a “pregnant girl needing her burden lifted, and Hicks was in the practice of lifting burdens.”

“Pink and blue bundles born out of strife, bought rather than being adopted. My entire life seemed to have worked its way up to that moment. The struggle to understand how flesh and circumstance could be brokered so easily set my course, pushing me from my early childhood, inching me toward insight.” Over 200 blackmarket babies sold and bought. “Cash for a baby and a fake birth certificate. Snake oil at a circus sideshow.”

“That’s the saddest part of the Hicks Clinic tragedies--too many secrets.” “Judgment is the path of least resistance.” “Life is life and it’s beautiful in all its imperfections and detours...circular and connected in ways we will never be fully aware, and I don’t want to take any of it for granted.”

“Belonging is where unconditional love is, where you want to be. Home is when, not where. It’s when you accept that love is king and it’s almost always imperfect. Finding home is when you reject the judgment, the hate, and the shame, and you embrace the laughter, the frailty, the dance, and ultimately the love. And love is everything.”

“I found where I belonged. It took the journey of searching, not the actual DNA, to find who I am. I am a child of God. He knows my name and He placed me in this world. He knew where I should be and who I belonged to all along. I’m His.”

[Laura A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is shocking, but so so pleased that the author has found Christ and the hope and forgiveness He gives!

I was absolutely hooked throughout and could not believe what I was hearing at times! (listened on Audible).

Incredible. Have bought a copy for a friend for Christmas!

[Infosifter · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author has had a harrowing life journey, and I don't like to criticize a personal memoir like this because it comes off like criticizing the person who wrote it. This is quite a fascinating story, but as others have pointed out it would be better told via journalist. It's as though the author had an idea of what literary pros should feel like and then imitated that without substance behind it. Still, this is a story that deserves to be told and the birth parents and babies who were affected deserve recognition and sympathy for their terrible experiences.

[Cara Putman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting account of one woman’s search for her family.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 rounded down to 4

[Silly lil goose · Rating 2 out of 5]

The lineage was all over the place, characters were hard to keep track of, and it was a bit of a mid reading.

[Carissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

For supposedly wanting the Hicks Clinic babies’ stories to be told “the right way,” Taken at Birth took far too many liberties with other people’s stories. Awkwardly placed asides with fabricated, intricate details were prioritized over telling a cohesive story. Blasio completely made up an elaborate story about a suspicious suicide, like somehow she magically knew the truth of a crime police weren’t even certain occurred. She peppered other people’s horrific abuse with flowery descriptions of their surroundings, God knows why. Additionally by attempting to anonymize certain characters Blasio only made her narrative more difficult to follow. People that spanned multiple pages were never even given a name. Someone would randomly pop into a scene and back out with very little transition or explanation.

I empathize with the vulnerability it took to write a memoir like this but all the people in McCaysville who accused Jane Blasio of not being a writer were completely correct. She may have been a private investigator but she barely knows how to collect her thoughts into a narrative and she certainly doesn’t know how to tactfully and tastefully tell the stories of the dead. It’s barely even an informative book, honestly. I feel very cruel writing that out, but I think Blasio was too. She outright judged others for how they wanted this story to come out then disrespects the memories of women who were already uncomfortable and ashamed of their history. I can’t see past that.

Lousy writing aside, the Hicks Clinic is one of the many, and one of the more horrific, stories about just how many ways women are violated by people they should be able to trust. Forced abortions, faked infant deaths, medical malpractice, and the blind eye of a country town victimized thousands of men, women, and children over two decades too many.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in one day, because I was so eager to find out what would happen to the author. This book opened my eyes to something that I never knew even happened, especially in the United States. In the 1960's, Dr. Hicks had a clinic where people could come to "buy" a baby and obtain a false birth certificate for that baby. Dr. Hicks was a shady character. He performed abortions, some wanted and some not. He sold babies that women gave birth to in his clinic. Some were offered to him by choice, and some he told the birth parents that the baby had died.

Fast forward several years, and Jane Blasio has discovered that she was a baby who was "purchased" by her adoptive parents at the Hicks clinic. She has no information other than the false birth certificate that was given to her adoptive parents, and the limited information that they were able to share with her. She begins a journey that will lead her to a better understanding of her past, and opens the door to the horrors and suffering that occurred in and because of the Hicks Clinic.

She is met with resistance from some, and makes life-long connections with others. Jane ends up helping many others, birth parents and adoptees, find closure to a painful past. But, will Jane find closure for herself? Is there a birth family out there waiting to meet her?

While this was a tale filled with sad story, it shows the persistence and strength of the human spirit, and how much of a difference one person can make. It is a pretty quick read, because you will want to see what happens and the topic is intriguing.

I received a copy of this book through the Blog About Blogger Network, in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting true story about a woman trying to find her birth parents

This is a true story about a woman brave enough to reclaim her past by investigating the crimes of a small town doctor who both aborted babies and sold some babies to childless couples for cash. The author's investigation also helped many other people who shared a history similar to the author's and this makes Jane Blasio's work especially commendable. For example, in her book she wrote, "I learned through my research that over two hundred babies were sold at the clinic." Later on, she wrote that "Just under fifty babies from the Hicks Clinic came forward when the article was published. Some wanted to stay anonymous, and that was honored. Soon after, a steady number of them, at first separately, found themselves sitting on the couch in my living room with birth certificates in hand." Blasio helped a significant number of people find out the truth about themselves after being lied to their whole lives, in many cases, about being illegally adopted. Bravo, Jane Blasio!

[Milinda Yount · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author tells the story of searching for and finding the truth about her own adoption and shows how along the way she helped many others and brings their stories to light too. This was a page turner for me and I devoured in a less than a day while following the twists, turns, and challenges that Jane experienced over many years. I enjoyed Lisa Wingate’s books about the Tennessee Children's Home Society (both fiction and non-fiction) and was disheartened to learn that there were other operations trafficking babies for adoption. In this case, the operation was run as part of a clinic run by a doctor in Georgia. At times I felt the author was being a little guarded and careful with what she shared which is well within her right. Thank you to Revell and Baker Books for the advanced copy and chance to read and review.

[LKay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very quick read that I finished in a little less than three hours. I had never heard about the Hicks Babies before, and it’s so heartbreaking.

While this book opened my eyes to this tragic piece of history, it’s mostly Jane’s story and emotional journey to finding her roots. The journey is a bit hard to follow at times. Included in this memoir are not just her own experiences but re-tellings of stories that have been pieced together or told to her from someone else. It reads a bit awkwardly.

I don’t particularly enjoy memoirs and find them difficult to review. I agree with other reviewers that this book could have used some heavier editing or ghost writing. I do understand and respect that this is one person’s memoir. I would really like to hear the stories of some of the other Hicks Babies, and their journeys as well.

[Cat Pfenning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very compelling story, it was hard to put down! This was great writing and I'm amazed at everything the author went through to find out who she was, and the lengths she went to uncover the truth of so many babies lost.

[Gwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly I would probably give it a 2.5, but it was generally an interesting topic and important to understand how these sorts of operations operated in the middle of the last century. The main problem I had was that she left so many questions unanswered and so much of her life was left unexplored. (Spoilers going forth)Was it a memoir or was it just about the Hicks Clinic? She was married? She kinda had a break down in 1997 when the first big article was written, but we don't hear about until the last chapter? She met the man she thought was her father, established a relationship with him and his daughter but never took a blood test to confirm? Doc Hicks was on trial for his various crimes (which crimes we are never told) in the fall of 1964, but somehow he sold her to her parents in Jan 1965?? How did that happen?And finally what about her birth mother. We hear absolutely nothing about her. She meets her maternal uncles and talks glowingly about them but she has nothing to say about her mother? Tons of stories about her grandmother but again nothing about her mother. Her father was a 'good man' and she has many stories to prove it. But she has nothing to say about how a 40 something man with a job has a child out of wedlock (his family claims he mustn't have known about her) or even how he was involved with her mom (again no idea how old she was at the time, bc the author says nothing about her). I tend to be generous when I read memoirs. They are the person's story and perspective and that should be respected. But these factual omissions really left me wanting at the end of the book. I really don't feel like I know the author much at all or have a very good understanding of her struggle. I'm glad I read it for what I did learn about the Hicks Clinic and the people who were hurt by the doctor. But as a memoir or an accounting of "my journey to finding home" it falls completely flat.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

WARNING - THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

At first I was absolutely captivated by Jane's story. Her quest to find out where she came from led her to the Hicks clinic. Dr. Hicks ran a clinic in a small town. He performed abortions and also sold babies for adoption. Jane found out that she was a Hick's baby and went on a quest to find her truth.

I was enthralled reading about her journey and some of the stories that she learned about forced abortions or baby sales. But the second part of the story fell apart for me. Jane eventually goes public with the information that she has learned and gets contacted by other children and even some birth mothers.

But this whole part is impersonal. No one apparently wanted to share their story so I found myself drifting. I got back into it when she found her own birth mother. We learned a lot about that woman and really connected.

Then she found out, through DNA testing, that she actually wasn't. And instead, she found her potential father with ancestry.com. And I didn't care. I didn't want to invest in another story. I realize that this was probably just as emotional for her, but she didn't capture that at all.

I just got bored at the end. It was an amazing, captivating beginning and just petered out.

[Carissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tough read, but a topic I've been interested in. I know children have been sold on the black market before, and I'm sure still are today. There needs to be more awareness among young women and others on the pregnancy age range to keep parents alert who are told their child was stillborn, and the doc to patient ratio needs to be explored more thoroughly. There were signs. Everyone knew something quite right. The ending turns out "ok", but there's still a lot of sadness. Kudos to the author for the obstacles she had to overcome and the determination she had to figure as much of this out as much as possible.

[Kaziah Mustard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure I even have words. I had to read this in small doses. The horrors Dr Hicks perpetrated against his patients/victims is unimaginable. Like Georgia Tann he decided he could play God in other people's lives. The book is more a factual account of the author's journey of discovering who she was than a story. She includes lots of other victims stories as well. The end is somewhat unsatisfying because everything isn't resolved and answers aren't fully given, not because the author doesn't include them, but because this side of eternity there isn't justice and answers for some of the stories. The author includes her walk of faith and ultimately realizing her identity is in Christ and not her bio or adoptive family and their treatment of her.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a foster to adoptive mother, I found this to be an excellent memoir that allowed me to get inside the head of someone who has been adopted.
I thought it was a compelling case against abortion.
It made me sad to read reviews of so many people who thought that it was confusing to read. I didn’t feel that way at all and would encourage others to read this title, despite the negative reviews.
I would love to watch the documentary soon.
So glad to have found this title.