Good news from Oregon!
While Washington state lawmakers continue to sweep its state’s bastards under the rug like pesky little dust bunnies dirting up the Statehouse. the Oregon House today unanimously passed SB623. Enacted in the spirit of Bastard Nation and Helen Hill’s Ballot Measure 58, the bill expands the right of all Oregon adoptees to acquire, upon request, the contents of their adoption file-– a right that no other state (so far!) recognizes. In other words, Oregon has swept away statutory adoption secrecy by opening the files and trusting the parities involved to leave their axes at home.
Adoptees:
- the age of OBC access will be lowered from 21 to 18.
- the entire adoption file, except for the Home Study, will be made available to the adoptee upon request at the age of 18 without a court order.
- the Home Study may be released by court order for “good cause”.
Birthparents:
- original parties to the adoption may view and copy documents in the court adoption file to which they were signatories. Under existing law birth parents must petition the courts to gain access to documents they were required to sign, and often are rejected by courts under the onerous and undefined “good cause” doctrine. The new law would provide these documents upon request.
SB623 had NO opposition. Governor John Kitzhaber, who was governor during the M58 campaign,. says he will sign the bill.
Details on how the law will be implemented should be released sometime this summer
I have to go to work in the middle of the night so I’m closing for now I plan to write more about this later.
In the meantime, Bastard Nation congratulates Oregon–its adoptees, its first and adoptive families, the legislature–and Bastard God Ron Morgan– for standing up and leading the way for the rest of the country. If Oregon, why not the rest of the country Use Oregon as an example!
…Marley Greiner, Exe, Chair
New York Adoptee Rights Coalition
This is totally amazing and wondeful news….let’s hope it sets a precedence for other states!
Thanks Marley!
excellent news!
I am excited beyond words about this wonderful news. I hope that other states follow through with the same laws. It is time that the world realize that all the rhetoric about “promised confidentiality to the birthmother” is not anything the majority of first mothers asked for or wanted. The confidentiality was forced upon us. Thank you, Oregon, for being such advanced thinkers and believers in adoptees having the same rights as the rest of the citizens of our country have.
Thank you to all that made this happen! So glad I was adopted in Oregon!
I wish Washington would get with it…maybe I could find my other sibs.
Yes!!!…. A surge of hope lifts me up… to fight the fight until no one no one no one has to fight for their BC or their Adoption Record again!…. No more secrecy!!….. Thanks!!!!!!……..
While I am proud to be a citizen of Oregon-and an Oregon voter-I regret the fact that I was adapted in Arizona.
AKA Norman Lawrence Jamison
Unfortunately it is only directed towards court documents and in the case of Boys and Girl’s Aid Society who maintains their own files it doesn’t provide much more information than Measure 58. BGAS maintains that my preadoption birth cert. is “likely a false name” and refuses to release any of their documents and only offers to use an investigator if you pay them $400 then adds the disclaimer “I doubt they’ll come up with anything.” This is a great thing and I’m glad it passed, I just wish BGAS would stop treating me like a bastard.