Oregon Giving Adoptees Birth Info.

More than a dozen adoptees hoping to track down their birth parents showed up at the Oregon Health Division Wednesday, the first day the state was able to begin processing their requests for birth certificates.

They were told it would take six to eight weeks to receive it as the agency processes the 2,334 applications it had received before 9 a.m. Wednesday in the order they were received.

Those whose applications are on the top of the stack could have their birth certificates by early next week, said Mel Kohn, deputy state epidemiologist.

Birth parents in other states who don't want adoption records opened may be increasingly pessimistic about their odds of protecting their privacy in court, reports CBS News Correspondent Lisa Hughes.

Three years ago, federal Supreme Court justices refused to even review Tennessee's new adoption law.

And Tuesday, Justice O'Connor rejected a last-minute effort to delay the law in Oregon.

The decision ended two years of court battles begun by six women who argued the new law violates the privacy of people like themselves who gave up their children for adoption and started new lives.

Frank Hunsaker, attorney for the six anonymous birth mothers, is bitter about the removal of the last legal roadblock.

"These are betrayals," he says. " (This) opens up wounds, discloses information they were told would not be disclosed without their content."

But birth mothers who don't want to be contacted can make that clear on a form that will go to the adoptee along with the birth certificate. A mother who doesn't want to be contacted still has to provide her health history.

William Pierce, the founder of the National Council for Adoption, says the Oregon law breaks a promise of privacy made to women years ago -- and its sponsors now want to open records elsewhere.

Pierce says: "You go on their Web sites, you will find a fundraising thing called, 'Whose Next.' They are targeting other states."

CBS News Correspondent Hattie Kauffman reports the motivations for the adoptees to seek their birth records are varied.

Among them is Jeff Conklin, who wants his birth records not for his sake, but for his 13-year-old daughter, Genelle, who has been diagnosed with a heart defect. Conklin needs to know his ancestry to provide life-or-death medical information for his child.

On the other hand, adoptee Geena Stonum simply says, "I think it's my right to that birth certificate."

But opponents said promises of secrecy made to mothers when they put their children up for adoption shouldn't be broken.

A birth mother identified only as "Cindy" told CBS News that when she gave up a child for adoption after she was raped, she was "told that it would be private."

When Cindy's daughter turned 18, "She wanted to find the father, who had brutally raped me and that wasn't safe for my life," Cindy said. "I'm afraid for all the birt mothers whose privacy will be violated. Once that happens, you can never get it back."