AB 1302 would create a clumsy, cumbersome, and unduly burdensome TRIPLE notification procedure in the hands of the Department of Health. While no fiscal note is yet attached to the bill, I can imagine the cost in millions will fall on adoptees and other voters in California.
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SB64 should have passed the House. The bill was a shoo-in. It had no organized opposition. Even traditional opponents agreed to remain neutral. The bill zipped through the Senate and the House Judiciary Committee unanimously. But then something happened. A small group of politicians found the right of their own state’s adopted people to obtain their own Original Birth Certificates “troublesome.” and “problematic,” or something worse. I don’t know their objections (I can guess) or who they are, though it is likely that House Speaker Jon Burns was among them. Did at least some of them have “a little something” to hide? Whatever was going on, they decided to keep Class Bastard Georgia in line. If SB64 isn’t heard and doesn’t exist on the agenda then adoptees don’t.
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I really have no idea what the purpose of this bill is or why it has been brought forward, but it is clearly adopteephobic, discriminatory, and frankly bigoted– and it clearly was written with no adoptee input. It has no support from any adoptee rights, adoption reform, or child welfare organization in the country. If this bill were about any other marginalized group and written without any input from them–African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, women, queers, trans, Jews, Muslims, disabled, it would never see the light of day.
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In other words, in order to protect the “privacy” (don’t they mean anonymity?) of biological parents from their own offspring, the State of California, upon receipt of an adoptee request for their OBC, would send to the parents at “the best available address” a Registered or Certified letter with restricted receipt requiring a signature, enclosing a notice of the request and a birthparent permission slip. A “reminder notice” will be sent 150 days later, if the original letter generates no response.
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Yesterday Minnesota SF1279 was voted favorable out of the Senate Judiciary and Public Health Committee. We thought the bill would be held over until 2024, but due to the vagaries of legislation, it was suddently put on the agenda. Bastards are on a roll!
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This seemingly innocuous one-page bill is all dressed up as a pretty gift horse to give adults, who were adopted as a child, the right to their original birth certificate through a court petition and order. Look that gift horse in the mouth…
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The California House Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing on AB1302 on March 21.. This is a terrible reactionary bill,that includes biological parent redactions and maintains a complicated court procedure to obtain OBCs. California is the crown jewel. Passage of this bill would not only mean a defeat for the adopted people and the adoptee rights movement but probably make access worse in the state than it is now. It would be impossible to revisit for years.
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Tuesday the Georgia House Judiciary Committee voted DO PASS on SB64, a bill that will restore full unhindered access to the OBCs of Georgia-born adoptees. Now on to the House!
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Yesterday the Georgia Senate passed SB64 by a whopping 54-0. The bill now goes to the House.
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We urge you to reject SB470 a bill that seriously restricts the right of West Virginia-born adoptees to obtain their Original Birth Certificates. The bill appears to have been written without the input of adopted persons and passed in the Senate without at least one public hearing.
The bill, pertains only to OBCs and not adoption files. It redacts by default, all identifying information on the birth record, unless a biological parent specifically authorizes the release of the document with that information via submission of consent forms to the Department of Health.
In effect, this means that barely anyone would qualify for a true copy of their OBC.
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Bastard Nation is a proud partner organization in the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition, along with the Adoptee Rights Law Center and the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York. Plus strategic partner Reclaim the Records
Bastard Nation is a proud partner in the Texas Adoptee Rights Coalition, along with Equality for Adoption, Gladney Adoptees for Rights and Equality, and the Adoptee Rights Law Center. Plus strategic partner Reclaim the Records