Last week Texas Representative Gina Calanni introduced HB2725, a bill to restore the right of OBC access to all Texas adoptees with no restrictions or conditions. Bastard Nation, as an individual organization, and as a founding member of the Texas Coalition for Adoptee Rights supports this bill whole-heartedly.
Please visit the TXARC webpage and read its HB2725 press release for more information. Join TxARC for its action list and learn how you can help restore Texas adoptee rights.
What the Bill Does
HB2725, which TXARC has been involved with drafting and providing advice for months to assure that it remains clean and unrestricted:
- Restores the right of all Texas-born adoptees, at age 18, to obtain noncertified copies of their own original birth certificates upon request;
- If the adoptee is deceased, allows the adoptee’s descendant, adult sibling, surviving spouse, or adoptive parent to request and obtain the adoptee’s original birth certificate;
- Creates an optional and genuine contact preference form that a birthparent may complete, which expresses that parent’s preference for contact with the adoptee;
- Allows birth parents to file a supplemental medical history form that would provide additional information to the adoptee;
- Requires adoption agencies to inform birth parents of the provisions of the new law and the availability of the contact preference form;
- Goes into effect on September 1, 2019, though some provisions related to the agency provision of the CPF are delayed until January 1, 2020.
New York Adoptee Rights Coalition
