Bastard Nation received this Call to Action today from the Louisiana Coalition for Adoption Rights. If you call under any of the categories below, please contact Louisiana Senators now! Anyone who’s ever lived in Louisiana- anyone who knows anyone in Louisiana should tell them to write in, anyone who knows an adopted person or parent who relinquished in Louisiana etc
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There’s some terrific testimony from our friends Elise Lewis and Kenny Tucker from the Louisiana Coalition for Adoption Rights, who have been at it for years, the Louisiana Adoption Advisory Board, first mothers, adoptive mothers, and social workers, as well as bill sponsor Rep. Charles Owen and former lawmaker Danny Martiny sponsor of similar legislation in the past.
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Adopted people in 11 states have unrestricted access to their OBC. Just a couple of weeks ago Vermont restored OBC rights and your neighbor Alabama restored that right 20 years ago. Not one single negative report about unsealing has been published. Access has been normalized. Adoptees are treated just like the Not Adopted and like the Not Adopted no one denies that they have a right to those records and information.
Louisiana adoptee rights activists need our help again. HB 450 passed the Louisiana House 76-21 on March 28, 2022, This is a clean bill. The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee A on May 24. Below is the action alert Louisianas folks sent out today. At this point, they are asking for calls and emails from everyone –not just those with Louisiana connections to request DO PASS with no restrictive amendments added. If you have a Louisiana connection–Louisiana-born adoptee, resident, family, etc.–please include that information.
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On an otherwise bleak and discouraging news day, a ray of sunshine streaked across AdoptionLand as Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed H629, the bill that restores the right of all Vermont-born adopted people to their Original Birth Certificates. No restrictions! No conditions!
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On Thursday, April 14, 2022, the Vermont House voted to concur with Senate amendments on H 629. The bill now goes to Governor Phil Scott for his signature. thus making Vermont the 11th state to recognize and affirm the right of all adopted people (in Vermont at age 18) to obtain their original birth certificates without restrictions or conditions. There is no reason to believe that Scott will not sign it.
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Tell the House to retain the original language of the bill– pass the bill as written Keep your letter short and concise. If you are a Louisiana-born adoptee tell them. If you are adopted, tell them. If you have a Louisiana connection, tell them. If you are a birthmother, tell them. Remember, this bill is about adoptee civil rights and the restoration of the right for all adopted people to obtain their own original birth certificates. It is not about search and reunion, claims of birthmother “confidentiality,” or abortion.
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This morning, (March 21) the Louisiana House Committee On Civil Law and Procedure voted DO Pass on HB 450, a bill to restore the right of all Louisiana adoptees, at the age of 24, to obtain their original birth certificates upon request without restrictions or conditions. Due to the state’s “forced heir” law, peculiar to Louisiana, we are stuck with the age 24 timeframe, but all adoptees are covered. An attempt to amend the bill with restrictions was not accepted. We want to thank our friends Kenny Tucker (who btw, hosted BN’s 2002 conference in NOLA) and Elise Lewis for their hard work on this bill, and the bill’s sponsor Rep. Charles Owens…Below is our submitted testimony.
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In a remarkable turn-around the Vermont House today passed HB 629 .a bill that restores the right of all Vermont-born adoptees to obtain their Original Birth Certificates without restrictions or conditions. The bill also separates OBC access from the Adoption Registry, and does away with Disclosure Vetoes regarding OBC access currently on file. This is the first time that we know of where a restricted bill transformed into a clean bill and passed. The vote was 149-1.
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Bastard Nation and its members oppose SB1320 due to its discriminatory treatment of Idaho-born adoptees and its eccentric attempt to include the OBCs of intercountry adoptees whose records are maintained by the federal government.
As a prospective-only bill, SB1320 affects no adopted people living today; only those not yet born or even conceived. The law would go into effect technically around the year 2040 and leave everyone born and adopted before then locked and stuffed into the same black hole and Adoption Registry file cabinet that they are now.
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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