Greg Luce, Adoptee Rights Law Center, really nails down Texas in his latest blog, Toeing the Bottom Line. Here’s a couple of snips:
The typical opposition came from those who believe birthparents retain a right to anonymity forty or fifty or two hundred years after signing relinquishment documents, despite such arguments being cruelly wrong and misguided. The other opposition developed from adoptive parents or, more likely, adoptive parents operating as proxies for undisclosed opposition. This came, of all places, from the Texas governor’s office. After all, Governor Greg Abbott is an adoptive parent. But the question from his office wasn’t about privacy. It was along the lines of “won’t this change closed adoptions into open adoptions?” And the concern appeared to be the fear of adoptees—as adults—simply having information about their birthparents. That line of questioning has been common in the past but it has faded more recently once people understand that open adoptions involve a non-binding arrangement between parents and the adoptive child. This made the appearance this session all the more surprising. Besides, in the last two sessions Abbott has never raised the issue….
….The hearing was ultimately a disaster, with STAR founder Connie Gray even suggesting we follow the “Mike Pence” approach of Indiana, which is a mess and is nowhere near a solution “similar” to HB2725, which Gray actually argued. Despite Rep. Calanni’s office requesting that we limit testimony to two people per organization, more than a dozen people ultimately testified, leading to prolonged consideration, further questions, and plenty of opportunity to confuse legislators. Remember, though, this is a bill that—in a nearly identical form—-passed the House 138 to 1 in an earlier session. (On top of all this, opposition is coming from fiscal quarters, namely an absurd $370,000+ fiscal note for the first year to support in part two full-time employees allegedly needed to process optionalcontact preference forms).
This is legislative reporting at its finest.
You want to know why it is so difficult to pass clean bills? This is what we face daily. Go over to Adoptee Rights Law and read it all. And weep!
New York Adoptee Rights Coalition
