Today New York Adoption Equality requested the public to fax New York Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried to return A2901A to his committee for a hearing. The amended bill which is basically a brand new bill, gutted the meaning and intent of the original A2901 and did not receive a hearing or vote.
Please join us and send your own faxes to Asssemblyman Gottfried and help us kill this reactionary bill which has no support, zip, nada, from adoptee rights activists, adoption reform advocates, adoption professionals, or social service agencies. Contact information is included in the header. Don’t let your rights be destroyed by a bill theta is 60 years behind the times!
Below is the text of the fax we sent tonight.
From: Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization
To: Richard Gottfried, Chair, Health Committee
Fax 518-455-5939
Date: June 17, 2016
RE: A2901A
We write to day to request that A2901A be returned to the Health Committee for a new hearing.
A2901A is an amended version of A2901, a bill that would have restored the right of all adopted adults born in the State of New York to access their original birth certificates (OBC) with no restrictions or redactions.The amended bill is not a matter of clean- up language or simple additions or subtractions. Instead it strips the original bill and adoptees of their right of OBC access, replacing it with a highly bureaucratized system of court orders, permission slips, and fiscal irresponsibility that infantilizes and restricts the rights of New York’s adopted adults. Incredibility, it mandates that judges take into consideration the “feelings” of an adopted adult’s adoptive parents when deciding to release the OBC! Another section mandates that the state track down the birthparents of adoptees who apply for their OBC, yet no fiscal note is attached to pay for these searches, which we estimate at today’s going search rate would cost over $7 million the first year alone.
A2901A has nothing in common with the bill that adoptee rights activists, adoption reform advocates, adoption professionals, and social service agencies supported, endorsed and testified for this session. A2901A has nothing in common with the bill that the Health Committee passed unanimously in February. A2901A is the exact opposite of the original bill in meaning and intent.
The determination of A2901A affects the lives of tens of thousands of New York State adopted adults and their families. Their rights and their restoration should not be taken lightly. Return A2901A to the Health Committee for an honest hearing. Thank you.
Yours truly
Marley E Greiner
Executive Chair
Phone: 614-261-6296
P. O. Box 9959 | Spokane, WA 99209 | Phone 614-641-0294
www.bastards.org
New York Adoptee Rights Coalition
