In the Matter of Baby M: 1987 - Whitehead Gets Support

Other women organized to defend Whitehead's fitness as a mother. Children's author Vera B. Williams, actress Meryl Streep, and writers Margaret Atwood and Susan Sontag were among a group of 121 prominent women who released a letter mocking statements made by Schechter and the other "experts." The letter, entitled, "By These Standards, We Are All Unfit Mothers," demanded that "legislators and jurists … recognize that a mother need not be perfect to 'deserve' her child."

In his closing argument on Whitehead's behalf, Harold Cassidy pointed out again that Mrs. Stern was not, as originally represented to Whitehead, infertile. He pointed out that the law permitted a termination of parental rights only in the case "of actual abandonment or abuse of the child." And he predicted that a verdict upholding the contract would result in "one class of Americans … exploit[ing] another class. And it will always be the wife of the sanitation worker who must bear the children for the pediatrician."

On March 31, 1987, Judge Sorkow announced his decision: "The parental rights of the defendant, Mary Beth Whitehead, are terminated. Mr. Stern is formally judged the father of Melissa Stern." Judge Sorkow then took Betsy Stern into his chambers and presided over her adoption of Baby M.