|
New York Statewide Adoption
Reform’s UNSEALED INITIATIVE
JOIN US TO LOBBY IN ALBANY
For more information please contact: Unsealedinitiative@nyc.rr.com
Adoptees must be free from a law legalizing the falsification of permanent records. A law enacted in 1935 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.
73 years
old!
Governor Lehman signed the closed record law in July
1935. We are committed and dedicated to the cause of removing
this outdated, unfair and discriminatory law.
Please sign this online petition for Open Records in
New York State!
Bill Numbers A2277 and S235
http://www.petitiononline.com/nysarpt1/petition.html
Mothers Who Surrendered to Adoption please also sign
this one: http://www.petitiononline.com/forbmoms/
video: Adoptees Access to Records
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyu4E9Bhi9E
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,
“Adoptees Deserve Access to Family
Histories”.
2007 Report by the Foremost Think Tank
on Adoption Issues:
Restoring A legal Right
for Adult Adoptees
http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/publications/2007_11_For_Records.pdf
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 soon Maine. 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".
Click here to read more on the Bill Summary page.
Video: Adoptee Support Part 1 by John Greene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQLFD9-j3o
Video: Adoptee Support 2, Fired up by John Greene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UULbBdRDBMY&feature=related
The
Child Welfare League of America is in support of Open Records for
all Adoptees in the U. S at age 18. The Evan B. Donaldson
Adoption Institute, a non-profit policy and education think tank in
New York City, is in support of our bills. The Institute does not
align with an organization or cause while conducting research and
analysis on many adoption-related issues in order to improve
practices, policies and laws. Catholic Charities in Albany has
recently given support for our bills. The American Adoption
Congress, Spence Chapin Adoption Agency in New York City, Holt
International Children Services (a leading adoption agency), The
Adoptees Liberty Movement Association, Adoption Crossroads, and
Manhattan Birthparents Support Group, North American Council
on Adoptable Children all strongly support our
bills.
Adopted Children Should Be Able to View Adoption
Records, Says Recent Survey by FindLaw:
http://company.findlaw.com/pr/2003/112503.adoptiondocs.html
1997 Cornell University Study Indicates Adoptive
Parents Are In Favor Of Open Records:
http://www.txcare.org/surveyab/stats/adoptionrecord_ssl.html
June 2007--Maine rights bill passes in a landslide vote--
link to Maine Senate hearings and testimonials
http://www.obcforme.org/
Keep updated on New York's progress for open
records. Get on the mailing list:
http://www.nyadoption.org/
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 and Delaware, and records already open in
Kansas and Alaska since the 1950’s, 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 1950’s 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.
NYSAR LOGO
TM
New Books
www.BabyThief.com
author Barbara Bizantz Raymond
www.IdenticalStrangersBook.com
Authors: Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
New Movie
www.AdoptedTheMovie.com
Story of Koreans adopted in the U.S.A.
The Adoption Mystique, author, social worker
adoptee Joanne Wolf Small
Highly Recommended
http://www.jwsmall.com/
The Girls Who Went Away, Author Anne Fessler
l.5 million mothers never wanted to give up their babies
www.thegirlswhowentaway.com/
Adoption Support Videos
Video: Adoptee Thomas Brooks,
author of A Wealth of Family
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2CVWn4f5YL8
|