READ THIS HISTORIC TESTIMONY!
Ohio Right to Life Rescinds Opposition to OBC Access.
Testifies in Favor
For decades Ohio Right to Life has opposed OBC access for adult adoptees. As the flagship of the National Right to Life Committee many other Right to Life organizations have followed Ohio’s lead.
On Wednesday, March 6, 2013 ORTL made an historic move. The organization not only (as previously announced) rescinded its opposition to access, but lobbyist ORTL lobbyist Stephanie Ranade Crider testified before the Ohio House Judiciary Committee in full support of access measure HB61. The bill, if passed would restore the right of all Ohio adoptees between 1964-Sept 17, 1996 to unrestricted access of their OBCs. Those adopted after that date are still held hostage by a Disclosure Veto which was forced into law by ORTL nearly 20 years ago. In-place DVs in Ohio and other states have made total unrestricted access extremely difficult, if not impossible, to restore. Disclosure Vetoes, which serve as an agreement between a tiny number of self-selected biological parents and the state are quite different from sealed records, which simply sealed records with no such agreement. (A more indepth statement on this is coming).
ORTL’s policy change should have major repercussions nationwide in traditional RTL and related organizations opposed to OBC access and adoptee rights.
ORT’s Testimony begins:
Some of you may know that for decades, Ohio Right to opposed opening adoption records to adoptees born/adopted between 1964 and 1996. The concerns of privacy and the repercussions for adoptive families, however, are fading with time as cultural perceptions about adoption have changed. Historically, arguments to keep the records closed were based on the idea that it would protect adoptees from potential embarrassment about the circumstances of their birth, or to protect adoptees from unwanted contact from birth parents. Frankly, these are outdated concerns, but it is this rationale that keeps 1964 – 1996 adoptees from being able to access their original birth certificate. Ohio law keeps these records closed, yet when the laws were revisited in 1996, it was decided that all adoptions finalized after that point are open unless parents choose to close their records. Even so, most younger adoptees (born in 1996 and after) will have the ability to obtain their original birth certificate from the Office of Vital Statistics when they are 21 years old. Those born in the previous window do not have this option, creating a disparity based simply on the year they happened to be born.
To read the entire testimony go here.
