Legislation!

SB364 Hearing!

2005-04-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

SB364, which has been revised, read CSSB364, went to hearing in the Jurisprudence Committee on April 20th. There was a great deal of detail testimony and support for the bill. The opposition was very small. To watch and listen to the hearing, please click HERE and type in April 20th when prompted. The testimony on CSSB364 begins 1 hour and 4 minutes into the session. If you are in support of this Bill, you are encouraged to contact members of the Jurisprudence Committee and show your support.

HB240 voted Positively out of Committee Today to the House Floor!!

2005-04-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

HB240 was voted favorably out of the Juvenile Justice and Family Issues committee today and is headed to the House Floor! If you are not familiar with HB240, click here, type in "HB240" and read all about it. This bill also has to do with access to birth certificates for adopted persons. If you are in support of this bill, and you live in Texas, you are encouraged to write and/or call your Representative and tell them to support this bill!

Links to All State Adoption Laws Regarding Access to Adoption Records and Birth Certificates

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State Laws, Page 1

From Oregon...

2005-03-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

The Oregon Circuit Court and Court of Appeals stated,“…the Oregon legislature…did not create a contract with birth mothers to guarantee them that their identities would not be revealed to their adopted children without their consent.”

American Adoption Congress Legislative updates

2005-03-21T07:45:00.000-08:00

American Adoption Congress

Complete Senator List

2005-03-17T11:56:00.000-08:00

Senator List with links to information.
http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/Senate/members.htm#name

Complete TX House of Representatives List with Info

2005-03-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

This is a direct link to a PDF file list (1 page) of all the Representatives, their Room Numbers and telephone numbers.

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/pdf/capcmplx.pdf

Have House/Senate Members on PDA

2005-03-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

Members on PDA
Obtain the latest house and senate member information directly on your PDA. Download includes: house and senate member names, house and senate member capitol and district addresses.

Just click on this link to find out how:

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/pda/members.htm

Committee on Jurisprudence

2005-03-16T17:08:00.000-08:00

This is a link to a list of all of the members of the Jurisprudence Committee, which is reviewing SB 364!

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/db2www/tlo/committees/cmtembrs.d2w/report?LEG=79&SESS=R&CMTECODE=C550&CHAMBER=S&CTYPE=Senate

BILL ANALYSIS

2005-03-16T16:31:00.000-08:00

BILL ANALYSIS

H. B. 770/S. B. 364
By: Goolsby / Lucio
3-14-05

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Currently, the state of Texas requires supplementary birth certificates to be issued in every adoption which do not divulge the name or location of the birth parents. This is without regard to the desires of the adoptive parents, child or court.

Under current law the original birth certificate cannot be accessed without an order of the court that granted the adoption. This court is not always known. Currently, the adoptees have to pay money to register with the Central Adoption Registry. That is how they find out the court in which their adoption was finalized. The Central Adoption Registry will not give out any information until they have verified the identity of the adoptee requesting a copy of his/her original birth certificate.

The majority of applications to open adoption records relate to adoptions that were granted before the enactment of the Texas Family Code in 1973. Prior to the enactment of the Family Code, adoptees had access to their court records without the necessity of a court order. The enactment of the Family Code retroactively denied adoptees easy access to their records.

Although adoptions in the past 30 years or so have required a health and genetic history report from the person placing the child, there has been no procedure in place to update that report or to encourage its updating by birth parents.

At the same time, with the increasing use of the internet, birth parents and adoptive persons are increasing finding each other. This is done without knowledge of the seekee’s desire for contact.

PURPOSE

As proposed, House Bill 770/Senate Bill 364 would:
1) Allow adoptive parents and adoptive children over the age of twelve and/or the courts to specify that a supplementary birth certificate need not be issued;
2) Provide a procedure for adopted persons over the age of 21, or if the adopted person is deceased, their adult descendant, adult sibling, or surviving spouse of the adopted person, to obtain a copy of the original birth certificate.
3) Create a “Contact Preference Form” to allow those birth parents who do not wish to be reunited with the adopted person an opportunity to express that preference which does not currently exist.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the author’s opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state agency, office, department, or other institution.

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Section 192.008, is amended as follows:
(a) Only the name of the mother, father or child is to be changed on the supplementary birth certificate.
Section 192.008, is amended by adding the following:
(a-1) The state registrar will not issue a supplementary birth certificate if requested by the court, the adoptive parents, or an adoptee who is at least 12 years of age. The state registrar will issue a certified copy of the report of adoption to the adoptee and his/her adoptive parents.
(f) Unless the requirements of (g) are met, the state registrar shall provide to an adult adopted person, or if the adopted person is deceased, an adult descendant, adult sibling, or surviving spouse of the adopted person a non-certified copy of the adopted person’s original birth certificate if the adopted person at the time of death was at least 21 years of age, a supplementary birth certificate was issued for the adopted person; the person(s) requesting the certificate furnishes proof of their relationship to the adopted person; and the adopted person had registered with a mutual consent voluntary adoption registry as defined by Subchapter E, Chapter 162, Family Code.
(g) The state registrar will not make the original birth certificate available to the adopted person, or if the adopted person is deceased, an adult descendant, adult sibling, and/or a surviving spouse, if the birth parent has filed with the state registrar: (1) a copy of the signed affidavit of relinquishment of parental rights relating to the adopted child that promises anonymity, (2) a contact preference form stating that the birth parent would prefer not to be contacted, and (3) an updated medical history.

SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 192, Health and Safety Code is amended by adding:

Section 192.0085 UPDATED MEDICAL HISTORY AND CONTACT PREFERENCE FORM.
(a) A birth parent may file an updated medical history and contact preference form with the state registrar.
(b) The state registrar is required to deliver the completed contact preference form and updated medical history to the adopted person (if one has been filed) when the adopted person makes any inquiry with BVS. It is the author’s opinion that the Contact Preference Form will be redacted to not include identifying information if the birth parent provides the required documents under (g) above.]
(d) The state registrar shall keep statistics on the number of updated medical histories and contact preference forms filed and delivered including the name of the agency or attorney which facilitated the adoption for which a contact preference form is filed.
(e) The state registrar may charge a nominal fee to cover the costs.

SECTION 3. The state registrar may not issue an original birth certificate, updated medical history and contact preference form until January 1, 2006. The purpose is to give birth parents time to file a Contact Preference Form with the state registrar’s office from September 1 to December 31, 2005.

SECTION 4. Effective date. The change in law made by this Act regarding access to birth certificate information applies without regard to the date an adoption order is rendered.

SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005. This is the date that birth parents can make their preferences known.

Promised Secrecy From Your Child?

2005-03-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

Those trying to kill HB770/SB364 are saying that birth parents were promised secrecy from their child. We need evidence that such "promises" were never made but the requirements of such secrecy were actually forced on birth parents who had no alternative at the time of the adoption. (Such abuse continues to happen in Texas.)

If you are a birth parent please include this in your letters to your Texas State Representative supporting HB770 and your State Senator supporting SB364. Include comments as appropriate about the promises you received at the time of the relinquishment of your birth child. What were you promised and what was forced upon you?

We are making significant progress! With enough letters written, and legislators well educated about the truth of the issues surrounding adoption, we will win!

While it certainly is not required, if you can please share your letters with Txcare sending copies to the locations indicated at www.txcare.org/2005. That will help us know what they are receiving and to coordinate lobbying efforts.

Please forward this email to any friends you may have who may know anyone with connections to adoption in Texas and/or anyone else who may support our efforts to restore adoption traid member rights.
2005 Campaign to Improve Adoption in Texas www.txcare.org/2005

Bullet Points for Letter Writing

2005-03-16T16:00:00.000-08:00

BULLET POINTS FOR LETTER WRITING

v Access to Original Birth Certificates (OBCs) is a civil rights issue.
Adopted people are the only people in the U.S. (besides those enrolled in the Federal Witness Protection Program) whose identities are legally changed in this manner. Adopted people are not being protected under the 14th amendment (equal protection): Simply because of the circumstances of our birth, we are being discriminated against.
v “Promises of lifetime of secrecy/privacy/confidentiality” is a myth.
Birth parents were never promised all of this, nor have any legal documents ever been produced that would prove such a concept. Further, adoption records were opened in Tennessee when the TN Supreme Court ruled that there was no Constitutional guarantee of a lifelong right to privacy.
v Current law does not provide “privacy”
Besides, the current law does not provide “privacy” anyway. Most adopted people are able to search and find without their adoption records, and are interested in obtaining them only as a matter of principle. As it stands, adopted people who search and find on their own have no way of knowing their birth parents’ desires regarding contact. HB770/SB364 actually provides more “protection” for birth parents since they will have the opportunity to make their wishes explicitly known.
v This is NOT a search issue
If it hasn’t been made clear already, accessing records is not about search and reunion. The internet has revolutionized the search process, and most people are able to search and find on their own. Further, birth records can be required for a number of reasons. For example, if an adopted person’s amended birth certificate is issued more than a year after their birth, it is difficult for them to obtain a passport…unless they have their original birth certificate! Currently, the standard reason a judge would allow an adopted person to open their records is “good cause”, ie: dire medical circumstances, possible genetic disorders, etc. However, deciding what is and is not “good cause” is up to each individual judge, and adopted people are often turned away at the door regardless of our reasons for wanting the records opened…no matter how medically important.
v Mutual Consent Reunion Registry (Central Adoption Registry: CAR) is inadequate.
State funding does not allow for any sort of meaningful advertising, and most people do not know it exists. Further, if a birth parent (or adoptee) is dead, incapacitated, or shamed into believing they do not have a right to register/search, registration will not happen. This does not mean that they do not want contact.
v Quality adoption practice supports giving adoptees access to birth records.
The Child Welfare League of America, generally accepted in social services to be the gold standard for program standards of practice, recognizes the need of adoptees to have birth information and encourages agencies to support this as well.
v Adoptees are bound by contracts made by others.
In adoption, an adoptee is expected to adhere for a lifetime to a verbal or implied, (never written), adoption contract to which they were not a participant.
v Historically, records were closed to protect adoptive families and birth families from the public, not each other.
Adoption records were open to all parties until 1931. At that time, the “Illegitimate” stamp was removed from birth certificates, and records were sealed to the public, but remained open to “parties interested and their attorneys”. In 1973 that adoption records were sealed to all parties, including those affected by the adoption. It was not until 1989 that language was used regarding “protection” of birth parents.
v Adopted people are not stalkers
Closed records maintain an environment of secrecy and shame, and perpetuate the idea that something “bad” has happened. Open records bring truth and honesty to the adoption system; they bring an end to ‘false advertising’. Adopted people want acknowledgement of a right that others take for granted, not to intrude in others’ lives. We were raised by our parents…but we want to know who we look like, share mannerisms with, share cultural heritage with, and were birthed to. We want to complete our story.
v MYTH: Giving adult adoptees access to their records will raise the abortion rate.
Both Alaska and Kansas give adult adoptees their original birth certificates. During the 1990s, Alaska has had over twice the per capita rate of adoptions as Texas, and Kansas’ per capita adoption rate has been 55% higher than Texas. The U.S., with mostly sealed records, has about 335 abortions per 1,000 live births. Kansas gives adoptees their original birth certificates at age 18 and reports an abortion rate of 165 per 1,000 live births in 1992. Texas seals adoption records and its abortion rate was 284 in 1992. Tennessee, Oregon (abortion rate decreased 7.2% in first 2 years of open records law), Alabama, Delaware, and New Hampshire all have given adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates.

Compiled by TxCARE/Texas Coalition for Adoption Resources & Education and
Katy Perkins

Legislative Advocacy "DO'S" AND "DON'TS"

2005-03-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

1. Do learn legislators’ committee assignments and where their specialties lie.
2. Do present the need for what you’re asking the legislator to do. Use data or cases you know.
3. Do relate situations in his or her home state or district.
4. Do learn the legislators’ position and ask why they take that position.
5. Do—in case of voting records—ask why he or she voted a particular way.
6. Do show openness to the knowledge of counterarguments and respond to them.
7. Do admit you don’t know. Offer to try to find out the answer and send information back to the office.
8. Do spend time with legislators whose position is opposite ours. You can decrease the intensity of the opposition and perhaps change it.
9. Do spend time in developing relationships with the legislative staff.
10. Do thank the staff for stands the member has taken, which you support.
DON’TS
1. Don’t overload a legislative visit with too many issues.
2. Don’t confront, threaten, pressure, or beg.
3. Don’t be argumentative. Speak with calmness and commitment so as not to put the legislator on the defensive.
4. Don’t overstate the case. Members are very busy and you are apt to lose their attention if you are too wordy.
5. Don’t expect members of Congress to be specialists. Their schedules and workloads tend to make them generalists.
6. Don’t be put off by smokescreens or long-winded answers. Bring the legislator back to the point. Maintain control of the meetings.
7. Don’t make promises you can’t deliver.
8. Don’t be afraid to take a stand on the issues.
9. Don’t shy away from meetings with legislators with known views opposite your own.
10. Don’t be offended if a legislator is unable to meet and requests that you meet with his or her staff.

Oregon Results with Original Birth Certificate Access Law for Adult Adoptees

2005-03-14T09:28:00.000-08:00

Oregon Results with Original Birth Certificate Access Law for Adult Adoptees

Follow a Bill through the Legislature

2005-03-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

Go to www.capitol.state.tx.us
Click Legislation
Click 'Receive Notification on Bill Changes'
This will notify you of all major changes to a bill, including when it goes to committee, which committee it is in, when hearings are, and if any text changes are made. You can view all pertinent bill info here.

To Contact Your Representative

2005-03-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

To get your Rep's contact info, go to:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm

Adoption Reform Texas Style

2005-03-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

An Open Letter to Adoption Reform Advocates
Texas Pages

Maps & Floorplans - Plan Your Visit to the Texas Capitol - The State Preservation Board - Caretakers of the Texas Capitol

2005-03-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

Maps & Floorplans - Plan Your Visit to the Texas Capitol - The State Preservation Board - Caretakers of the Texas Capitol

Major Bills

2005-03-03T07:21:00.000-08:00

The two main bills that this blog will focus on are HB 770 and SB 364.