Over 25 years ago, our Ballot Measure 58 restored the right of all Oregon-born adopted persons the right to obtain their OBCs without restrictions or conditions. Thousands of Oregon adoptees and their biological families have benefited from that measure. Since then Oregon had led the nation by passing further legislation to secure openness and transparency in its adoption system, access for the adopted and their biological parents to adoption files and courts records, and to dispel overall adoption shame and hypocrisy of the past and into the future. Oregon is by far, the gold standard for adoptee equal rights in US. The Oregon adopted automatically expect to be treated with dignity and respect.

It is with great alarm then that legislators are proposing—and apparently making it a priority– to take a backward step and promote the secretization of adoptees, their records and histories with the introduction HB2901. This bill authorizes the use of “newborn safety device,”popularly known as “Safe Haven Baby Boxes” that allow parents—that is, overwhelmingly