Tell New Jersey Assembly to Vote No on New Jersey’s Restrictive Adoptee Birth Records Bills A1406/S799 UPDATED S2814
R.E.F.O.R.M. Talk supports unrestricted access to adoptee’s birth records. Bastard Nation’s Action Alert outlines seven unacceptable restrictions. Please read and show your support!
BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT!STOP DISCLOSURE VETO/WHITE OUT LEGISLATION IN NEW JERSEY!!!
ASK THE NEW JERSEY ASSEMBLY: VOTE NO ON A1406/S799
Read full text of A1406 here.
Read full text of S799 here
Please contact Assembly members immediately and urge them to VOTE NO ON A1406/S799. (Contact information below.) If you are from or in New Jersey or have a New Jersey connection, mention it in your communication.
Be sure to put: “Vote No On Adoptee Birthright Bill “in the headerBastard Nation’s letter to the Assembly is here.
A1406/S799 is:restrictive, discriminatory, creates a new, special and temporary ”right” for “birthparents,” and exempts the state’s adopted adults from equal protection and treatment regarding the release of the government-generated public record of their births.
*includes a 12- month open enrollment period, starting after the Department of Health releases regs for A1406/S799 implementation, that allows “birthparents,” to file disclosure vetoes (DV) before obcs, past and future, are unsealed
*authorizes the state to replace the original birth certificat, of those subjected to the DV with a mutilated copy of the obc with all identifying information, including the address of the parent(s) at the time of birth (if it appears on the cert) deleted.
*requires “birthparents” who file a disclosure veto to submit a family history and a possibly illegal intrusive medical form to activate the veto.
*requires “birthparents” who file a “contact preference form,” which, in fact, acts as a disclosure veto, to fill out the same family history and possibly illegal intrusive medical history form to activiate the veto.
*seals by default all “safe haven” birth certificates, even though most “safe haven” babies are born in hospitals to identified mothers.
*requires adoption agencies and adoption lawyers to receive a written veto status report from the state before they can release identifying information to adoptees
*requires the state to mount an “information” campaign to inform “birthparents” of their “protection” options
A1406/S799 IS NOT ABOUT RIGHTS.
A1406/S799 IS ABOUT PRIVILEGE
Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization opposes legislation that denies any adult adoptee access to his or her own original birth records on par with all other citizens. Please let the Assembly know that this issue is not about relationships between adoptees and their “birthparents.” It is about basic human and civil rights.
Passage of bad legislation is New Jersey could easily undermine efforts of dedicated reformers who are holding the line for adoptee rights in other states.
New Jersey’s A1406/S799 is an abomination in light of the restoration of the right of original birth certificate access to all persons adopted in Oregon, Alabama, and New Hampshire, and Maine. Adult adoptees and all who support adoptee rights should stand united for unrestricted access laws and not sell out just to get a bill passed! Disclosure veto legislation is unethical and unjust!
Please e-mail the New Jersey Assembly today and urge members to VOTE NO ON A1406/S799.
(write one letter, cut and past for all)
AsmAlbano@njleg.org, AsmMilam@njleg.org, ASmDeAngelo@njleg.org, AsmGusciora@njleg.org, AsmChivukula@njleg.org, AsmEgan@njleg.org, AsmBarnes@njleg.org, AsmDiegnan@njleg.org, AsmCoughlin@njleg.org, AsmWisniewski@njleg.org, AsmCryan@njleg.org, AsmGreen@njleg.org, AsmMcKeon@njleg.org, AsmCaputo@njleg.org, AsmCoutinho@njleg.org, AsmBurzichelli@njleg.org, AsmMainor@njleg.org, AsmODonnell@njleg.org, AsmPrieto@njleg.org, AsmRamos@njleg.org, AsmGiblin@njleg.org,
Drop a line to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie now and ask him to veto A1406/S799 if it hits his desk. Letters should be no more than 250 words. Use this template : http://www.state.nj.us/governor/contact/
or contact him at:
Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
609-292-6000
Bastard Nation’s letter to Governor Christie is here.
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update/June 2013: New Senate Bill 2814 passed the Senate Health Committee “with a vote of 9-0-1. It now heads to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee for further review.”
[Politicker NJ 6/13/13 by Trish Graber]
Update 2:Another New Senate Bill S873 Is in Session. “The bill giving adopted people their original birth certificates is up for a vote in both houses of the legislature today, moving on a fast track to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk, where its fate is uncertain.Christie’s conditionally vetoed what was essentially the same legislation in 2011. At that time, he offered an alternative: allow a “confidential intermediary” from an adoption agency to search for an adult’s biological parents. If after a year-long “diligent” search the birth parents are not found, the birth certificate would be released. Parents who are found and want no contact with a child surrendered long ago would be asked — but not required — to provide a complete medical history to share with the adopted person.
The legislature declined to pursue the alternative Christie recommended. The bill, sought by adoption advocates since 1990, was reintroduced when the new legislative session began last month.
“Since then, an ever-growing team of parents of adoptees, adopted adults and adoption professionals has worked with adoption agencies, advocacy groups, medical and legal professionals and elected public officials to enhance public understanding of the human and civil ‘right to know,’ ” according to a statement from the New Jersey Coalition for Adoption Reform and Education.
The N.J. Catholic Conference, New Jersey Right to Life and the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union have successfully challenged the bill by arguing birth mothers gave up their child believing their anonymity would be preserved. The religious organizations have suggested more women and girls would choose abortion if privacy is a major concern.
The bill before the Assembly and Senate today would allow an adopted adult or an adoptive parent on a child’s behalf to request his or her birth certificate from the state Health Department. Birth parents would be allowed to file documents with the state registrar indicating whether they want to be contacted directly, through an intermediary, or not at all. The birth parent who does not want to be contacted will be required to update family history information every 10 years until the birth parent reaches the age of 40, and every five years thereafter.
The bill, (S873/A1259) passed the Assembly Human Services Committee Feb. 10 and the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Jan. 28.
Adoption activist Pete Franklin said he and others who support the right to access birth records are optimistic about the bill’s chances this time around because public understanding of the issue has evolved.”The Oscar-nominated film ‘Philomena’ has finally brought public attention to the domestic abuse of young, unwed mothers during the Baby Scoop Era, (1940 to 1970), when millions of babies were put up for adoption simply because their mothers were unmarried,” Franklin wrote in an email. “Birth mother coercion is no longer a theory as the Catholic Church has apologized to birth mothers in Australia and the Irish Government has apologized in Ireland.”
“As adoptees from this era are aging and now faced with medical conditions that are clearly inherited, they are stepping forward with their doctors and demanding access to their family medical history,” Franklin wrote.”
[NJ.com 2/27/14 By Susan K. Livio]
Update 3: “A bill giving adoptees access to their original birth certificates — and with it a key to their identity and family health history — was approved by both houses of the legislature today.
The swift passage of the measure by the Senate, 24-8, and Assembly, 44-27 with three abstentions, was good news for the relentless group of activists who have campaigned for the law for almost 34 years, arguing that adopted people are denied a basic civil right to know who they are.
The bill (S873) would allow an adopted adult or an adoptive parent on a child’s behalf to request his or her birth certificate from the state Health Department. Birth parents would be allowed to file documents with the state registrar indicating whether they want to be contacted directly, through an intermediary, or not at all. The birth parent who did not want to be contacted would be required to update family history information every 10 years until the birth parent reaches the age of 40, and every five years after that.
But the bill’s fate is uncertain as it goes to Gov. Chris Christie, who conditionally vetoed the same legislation in 2011.
At that time, the governor offered an alternative supported by the New Jersey. Catholic Conference, New Jersey Right to Life and the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union: allow a “confidential intermediary” from an adoption agency to search for an adult’s biological parents. If after a year-long “diligent” search the birth parents were not found, the birth certificate would be released. Parents who are found and want no contact with a child surrendered long ago would be asked — but not required — to provide a complete medical history to share with the adoptee .
If the bill is signed into law, New Jersey would join Kansas, Alaska, Alabama, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee as the states that provide unrestricted access to an adopted person’s birth certificate, according to the American Adoption Congress.
Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande (R-Monmouth), urged colleagues to vote against the bill and consider an alternative that keeps parents’ identities private unless they consent to being found. Think of the young women who decades ago “were made to feel ashamed about being pregnant, and committed the ultimate act of love and gave that baby up for a better life,” she said.
“We can’t know the pain in their hearts,” Casagrande said. “But I do know what we are doing today allows for a knock on the door to happen for someone who maybe chose to heal by forgetting some of that stuff. We are infringing on people’s lives.”
Assemblyman David Wolfe (R-Ocean) whose father and granddaughter were adopted, said he felt compelled “to speak for the adoptee, who really is alone and nameless.
“Their past is hidden, a blank,” said Wolfe, one of the bill’s sponsors, “and they spend their whole life searching for who they are.”
After the vote, the bill’s supporter said they relieved, but knew he toughest task of convincing the governor and his advisers lay ahead of them.
“The most challenging thing about where we are now is communicating the wealth of information we have and how this is not a scary thing that is going to hurt people. It will help people,” longtime adoption Pam Hasegawa of Morristown said. “In states that have opened up (the records) there have been none of the repercussions that have been forecast.”
Lois DeStefano of Linden, who surrendered her son for adoption in 1968, said she was troubled by Casagrande’s “dramatic” comments about “speaking out for us – the silent birth mothers.” DeStefano said the vast majority of mothers like herself want to be found, she said.
“I’m happy” the bill passed, she said, “but I’m apprehensive about what the governor might do.”
Mary Tasy, executive director for New Jersey Right to Life, said she was disappointed by the outcome on behalf of the birth parents who contact her but want to remain anonymous.
“Legislation that seeks to change procedures regarding a very complex issue such as adoption should take into account the rights of all parties in adoption,” she said.””
NJ Senate, Assembly pass bill granting adoptees access to birth certificates[NJ.com 2/27/14 By Susan K. Livio]
“As an adoptee and adoptive parent, I applaud the Senate and Assembly for passing the New Jersey Birthright Bill. This legislation will restore a basic human and civil right to relinquished people who lost their genetic identity upon adoption.
Adoptees, like every minority group, can be marginalized in unexpected ways. When my birth mother died in 1997, I mourned her death alone as family and friends judged her importance to me incomprehensible, since I had known her for only 10 years.
The situation became unbearable when I was unable to bury her because I did not have my original birth certificate, proving I was her daughter. While her body remained in cold storage, I had to go to court for permission to arrange her burial.
At the same time, I became my birth father’s legal guardian. During that long legal process, I needed to find and connect with my birth siblings, and have honored requests from those who want no contact.
Since then, I have formed a close relationship with one biological sister and now have medical information that has benefited both our families and likely saved my life.”
Adoptees have right to lifesaving information: Letter[NJ.com 3/6/14 by Susan Merkel]
Update 4:“For more than 70 years, birth certificates for adopted children have been sealed, leaving thousands of adoptees in the dark about who their biological parents were.
Now they will be given access to that information, according to an NJ.com report.
Gov. Chris Christie will sign a bill today that will give adopted children access to their birth certificates.
The deal also allows birth parents until Dec. 31, 2016 to notify the state Health Department whether they want to be contacted by their child or an intermediary, and whether they want their name redacted from the birth certificate.”
State adoption records to be unsealed[Press of Atlantic City 4/28/14]
Update 5: “After three decades of advocacy from adoption activists, Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday signed a bill that will enable adoptees to obtain a copy of their original birth certificates.”
NJ Politics Roundup: Christie adoption bill signing, Valentine’s Day resolution, and more[NJ.com 5/28/14 by Brent Johnson]
Update 6: “New Jersey officials have started implementing a measure that allows access to birth records for people adopted in the state.
The legislation was signed by Gov. Chris Christie last year.Birth parents of children adopted before last Saturday will now have until the end of next year to request that their names be removed from the birth certificates.[What?]
Parents of children adopted after that date will not have the option of redacting their names. But they can say whether and how they prefer their birth children contact them.
Advocates had been pushing for better access to birth records in the state for 34 years before Christie and lawmakers struck a deal that included some ability for birth parents to maintain their privacy.”
State starts implementing law that opens adoption records[Washington Times 8/3/15 by Associated Press]
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