Bastard Nation
Action Alert!March 16, 2003 IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED - AMEND TEXAS HB 806Foreign Born Adoptees' Must Not Have Their Vital Records SealedPlease fax, email, and call bill sponsors, and the members of the Texas House Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee. Urge them to amend TX HB 806 to allow foreign born adoptees access to their birth documents, without a court order, when they reach the age of majority. Currently, Texas has no standard practice for issuing birth certificates to children adopted from abroad. HB 806, in attempting to standardize this procedure, has created the unintended side effect of sealing foreign born adoptees' birth documents permanently. Please write and ask ask that HB806 be amended to allow foreign born adoptees, upon reaching adulthood, to have access to the documents on which a "supplementary birth certificate" filing is based, without a court order. Bastard Nation uncovered this seemingly unintended side effect and brought it to the attention of the committee in testimony heard on Friday, March 15th. Until then, the sponsors of this bill were unaware of the problem and said they had not received any calls or letters concerning this issue.
Nearly all of foreign born children adopted in the United States come from countries where original birth documents are not sealed. It is against international policy to permanently strip these children of their identities. There is no reason that documents provided to the Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics regarding a foreign born adoptee be permanently sealed when a Texas birth certificate is issued.
Read the full text at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us
Contact InformationHB806 Sponsors:
The Honorable Representative Bob Hunter
Capitol Office
Room CAP GW.11
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0718
(512) 463-6244 Fax
The Honorable Senator Mike Jackson
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0111
(512) 475-3727 Fax
Juvenile Justice & Family Issues Committee Members:
The Honorable Representative Harold Dutton
Room CAP 1N.09
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0510
(512) 463-5896 Fax
The Honorable Representative Toby Goodman
Room CAP 4N.04
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0562
(512) 475-1178 Fax
The Honorable Representative Todd Baxter
Room EXT E2.802
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0631
(512) 236-1065 Fax
The Honorable Representative Joaquin Castro
Room EXT E2.714
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0669
(512) 463-5896 Fax
The Honorable Representative Jim Dunnam
Room EXT E2.322
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0508
(512) 463-5934 Fax
The Honorable Representative Terri Hodge
Room E2.818
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0586
(512) 463-8147 Fax
The Honorable Representative Joe Moreno
Room EXT E1.216
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0614
(512) 463-5896 Fax
The Honorable Representative Geanie Morrison
Room EXT E2.904
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0456
(512) 476-3933 Fax
The Honorable Representative Elvira Reyna
Room EXT E1.320
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0464
(512) 463-1492 Fax
Quick Email Cut & Paste:
Note: Email is may not be accepted by all Texas House members, so some addresses may bounce.To be considered, email should at minimum contain, Name, Physical Address, Zip, Phone Number(s), as well as an Email address.
bob.hunter@house.state.tx.us,
harold.dutton@house.state.tx.us,
todd.baxter@house.state.tx.us,
joaquin.castro@house.state.tx.us,
jim.duncan@house.state.tx.us,
terri.hodge@house.state.tx.us,
joe.moreno@house.state.tx.us,
geanie.morrison@house.state.tx.us,
elvira.reyna@house.state.tx.us
Call, fax, write today! Your letters and phone calls do make a difference.
Legislative Committee
Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization
http://www.bastards.org/
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