National Adoption Awareness Month is winding down, and today is a good time to post a round-up of 2020 legislative action –if you can call it action. In this Year of Covid-19 it is unlikely that any action, other than the slow death by sine die (adjournment of the session without action) will take place on any of the few remaining bills. If something does move, I will amend this later and repost it at the end of the year.
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This week Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert signed two bills that continue to abrogate the rights of Utah–born adoptees.
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Please drop a line to Utah Senators and ask them to oppose HB 345. .There is no state interest in keeping original birth certificates sealed from adult adoptees to which they pertain. Nor does the state have a right or duty to mediate and oversee the personal relationships of adults. Those who claim a statutory right to parental anonymity through sealed records, as found in HB 345, promote statutory privilege and state favoritism. This is not a bill adoptees want or need. Only unrestricted, unconditional OBC access is acceptable.
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Arizona has a long,curious and confusing history of adoptee records access. Before 1945 OBCs were open to the adoptee and the general public. In 1952 OBCs were closed to the public but still open to the adoptee. In 1967 OBCs were sealed to all adoptees. In 1997 OBCs were unsealed to a select few adoptees whose adoptions had been finalized 75 years ago or longer(!) Then in 2004 OBCs were again sealed to all adoptees This jumble of yes, no maybe, and no again makes no sense, especially now in an era of openness and transparency in adoption and the unsealing of adoption records around the country
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Bastard Nation and its members in Maryland have worked in Maryland since the late 1990s to secure a change in OBC/adoption record access laws that restore the right of all the state’s adoptees ,not just the select few as under current law who are currently forced to navigate a cumbersome, difficult, and insulting gauntlet of restrictions, arbitrary procedures, and naysayers, to receive their own OBC,s which are rightfully theirs, without restriction.
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The passage in 2015 of Public Act 14-133 which restored the right of OBC access to Connecticut adopted persons whose adoptions were finalized after October 1, 1983, shows that the legislature understands the justice in OBC access. Unfortunately, 30,000 of the state’s adoptees were left behind in that limited law—their records remaining sealed and available only through a court order. SB 113 finishes the job making all Connecticut adoptees subject to the same right of access and due process.
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The Florida House The Florida House Health and Human Services Committee held a hearing for H1217–baby box bill. Unfortunately, the Florida legislature, as we learned yesterday, does not accept electronically transmitted testimony. We then sent …
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A few weeks ago Access Massachusetts asked help in moving clean bills HB1892/SB1267 out of committee and on for a vote. The bills were recently voted favorable out of the Joint Committee on Public Health and are now in the House Seering, Policy, Scheduling Committee of the House. Access Massachusetts is not affiliated with Bastard Nation but we wholeheartedly support this bill that will level the playing field and restore the right of all Massachusetts adoptees to their OBC. Below is the letter we sent tonight in support of the bill and movement forward.
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On February 21, 2020, Connecticut SB113 will receive a public hearing before the Joint Committee on Planning and Development. The measure is a clean bill that levels the playing field for Connecticut adoptees. It restores …
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Bastard Nation is a proud partner organization in the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition, along with the Adoptee Rights Law Center and the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York. Plus strategic partner Reclaim the Records
Bastard Nation is a proud partner in the Texas Adoptee Rights Coalition, along with Equality for Adoption, Gladney Adoptees for Rights and Equality, and the Adoptee Rights Law Center. Plus strategic partner Reclaim the Records