Note: Letters sent via this letter form are limited to 3000 characters and to those with a Texas address. As a resident of Texas, this is my personal letter to the House Human Services Committee. —- Marley Greiner, Executive Chair, Bastard Nation
Marley Greiner
PO Box 247
Moody, Texas 76557
614-795-6819
marleyos@gmail.com
March 19, 2021
House Human Services Committee
I am an adoptree civil rights advocate and ask you to oppose HB 1843 which authorizes the use of Safe Haven Baby Boxes in Texas. I ask you to oppose this bill.
The causes of infant discard are not addressed by HB 1843
*poverty
*inability to secure affordable medical treatment/care
*denial/ignorance of pregnancy
*Draconian immigration policy/practice
*substance/physical/sexual abuse
*shame, crime, mental illness, family dysfunction, social isolation, & poor communication skills.
The implementation of Baby Boxes:
*Creates a parallel child welfare system that rejects informed consent & a full record of identifying information & social and medical histories of the newborn. Their use eliminates adoptees’ right to identity by denying their access to original birth and heritage records.
*Replaces professional best practice standards with unprofessional and unethical “relinquishment” by letting parents abandon solely for convenience or out of ignorance with no counseling, paper-signing, or discussion on family preservation alternatives
*Denies the non-surrendering parent the right of custody & to rear their own child. There is no mechanism in place to prove that the “surrendering” person has the legal right to do so. Abusive, embarrassed, or frightened partners, spouses or family members can use drop boxes without consent or knowledge of the (other) parent with no repercussions.
*Disenfranchises natural parents –particularly non-surrendering parent s(usually the father) –their right to due process
*Creates at-risk adoptions due to possible litigation from the non-surrendering parent or biological family members seeking custody.
*Contravenes the family reunification guidelines of the federal Adoption &S afe Families Act & parts of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) causing federal litigation.
*Encourages women to keep problematic pregnancies a secret by discouraging them from seeking family and professional communication, assistance for sexual/physical abuse, mental illness, substance abuse, and social isolation—factors that cause nearly every newborn discard.
*Discourages women from seeking pre-and post-natal care and to give unsafe unattended birth.
*Hides crime such as rape, incest, and spousal/partner abuse.
*Preys on undocumented & refugee parents who can’t or won’t seek medical and social services for fear of arrest, deportation, loss of other children. It forces them to give birth dangerously and secretly and to secretly abandon them if they can’t care for them.
*Does not decrease infant mortality rates. as suggested by promoters. According to NIH, the main causes of infant death are (1) birth defects. (2) preterm birth and low birth weight, (3) Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, (4) pregnancy complications and (5) accidents. The nobody-has-has-to-to-know-you-had-this baby ideology of Baby Box promoters exacerbates 1, 2, and 4/
This bill is a horrible anti-adoptee, anti-adoption precedent. Please vote Do Not Pass. Thank you.
