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New
York Statewide Adoption Reform's JOIN US TO LOBBY IN ALBANY We are a Pro Adoption Reform Organization
Adoptees must be free from a law legalizing the falsification of permanent records. A bill signed by Governor Lehman in 1935 and enacted in 1938 which nullifies the inalienable and civil right of a person to know the actual facts of their birth and obtain a copy of their original birth certificate. 74
years old!
Professor Elizabeth J. Samuels study, "The Idea of Adoption: An Inquiry into the History of Adult Adoptee Access to Birth Records" concludes laws were enacted to protect the confidentiality of adoptive families, not birth or natural families.
She has reviewed surrender papers and finds no evidence women were given legal confidentiality. Link to her website: http://law.ubalt.edu/template.cfm?page=664 Please sign this online petition for http://www.petitiononline.com/nysarpt1/petition.html Mothers Who Surrendered to Adoption Is
your birth parent forthcoming with pertinent medical history? See our Articles page and read the Surgeon
General's Family History Initiative and Adam Pertman's article,
AAC's 28th International Adoption Conference
Mile High Expectations Conference The New York Open Records Bill gives adoptees full rights.
Our bill is similar to bills that are now laws in Alabama, New Hampshire, Oregon and
Maine. Rhode Island recently passed a bill of rights: all adult adoptees will have access in 2012.
Although the new law will not give adoptees direct access like laws in Alaska and
Kansas, it gives birth parents the option of filing a contact preference indicating they
want "direct contact", "contact through an intermediary" or "no contact".
Recently we have become part of a state wide coalition of adoption agencies and child welfare organizations throughout the state to fight for passage of a fair and nondiscriminatory bill giving all adult adoptees rights. We are now a part of NYS Open Records Legislative Collaboration.
Adopted Children Should Be Able to View Adoption Records, http://company.findlaw.com/pr/2003/112503.adoptiondocs.html 1997 Cornell University Study Indicates Adoptive Parents http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/jan97/adoptionrecord.ssl.html
Keep updated on New York's progress for open records. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace https://www.facebook.com/UnsealedInitiative https://twitter.com/unsealedNY http://www.myspace.com/adopteerightsnewyork New York Statewide Adoption Reform needs your
support with letter-writing and lobbying for the "Bill of Adoptee Rights".
Passage of the Bill will allow adult adoptees, age eighteen or older, the right to their
original Birth Certificate. We are asking for the same right that non-adopted persons take
for granted. The New York State adoption law that seals records is unfair, outdated and
discriminatory. The law violates adoptees civil rights. With recent victories for adoptees in New Hampshire, Maine, Tennessee, Oregon, Alabama, Delaware and Rhode Island, and records already open in Kansas and Alaska since the 1950s, New Yorkers want our state to be next. Passage of the 1996 Tennessee bill was followed with two lawsuits organized by the pro-secrecy opponents hoping to repeal the law. However, the final decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and by the Tennessee Supreme Court held that the statute violates no rights of birth parents under either the Federal Constitution or the Tennessee Constitution. Passage of the 1999 Oregon Initiative, voted by citizens as a measure on the ballot, gave adoptees full rights to birth records. Again, opponents organized a lawsuit to enjoin the initiative. The lawsuit was dismissed by a court trial, and the Oregon Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed that dismissal. In its affirmance the Court of Appeals relied in part on the Sixth Circuit federal court decision. The new law in Tennessee allows birth parents the right to place a contact veto meaning that if a birth parent does not want contact and the adoptee makes contact anyway despite the contact veto, the adoptee could be up against a class "A" misdemeanor charge (if the birth parent decides to file a charge). This law bringing adoption law to a place of being criminal sets a bad precedent... Even though very few birth parents want to file a contact veto the possibility of jail time for an adoptee is outrageous. There are already harassment laws on the books. This kind of law is unacceptable. Recent passage of open records laws in Alabama and Delaware were not subjected to lawsuits by the opposition. Since the 1950s Kansas and Alaska have had laws similar to laws enacted in England, Germany, Holland, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, New South Wales, British Columbia & Newfoundland Canada, Scotland, Israel, and Finland, since the 1970s and 1980s. Meaning that adoptees have full rights and there is no possibility of legal ramifications resulting in a fine and/or jail time. In the first year that records were opened in Oregon 5,318 requests were made by adoptees for records. Only 58 birth parents did not want contact. In Delaware there were 414 requests for records by adoptees and only 14 birth parents did not want contact. We are waiting for statistics from Tennessee and Alabama. Most birth parents do not want confidentiality. Those who do not want contact always have the option of saying "no". Search and reunion are accepted in American society as normal events. Yet the law that seals records is slow to catch up to that norm. New York Statewide Adoption Reform, along with your help, can open records and give tax-paying citizens long overdue rights. Our strength is in numbers and unity. Please join us.
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