Legislative Watch
By Julie Dennis, Legislative Chair, Bastard Nation (jdennis@absnw.com)
This feature first appeared in the Fall 1999 issue of the Bastard Quarterly.)
Washington DC
Two bills were recently introduced in Congress seeking to ratify the Hague
Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of
Intercountry Adoption. The Senate bill is S. 682 and the House bill is
HR2909. Both bills included language that sealed the records of
intercountry adoptees and made it a felony to for any identifying
information stored in Federally controlled Hague Convention records to be
released, which directly violates the treaty these bills purport to
implement. Bastard Nation submitted written testimony and lobbied against
both bills in October 1999. Early indications show that action on both
bills will be delayed until 2000, when the bills may be amended or
rewritten. Please write your Congressman and tell them that sections 401
and 404 of these bills are unacceptable and must be removed. For more
information about these bills, contact Al Wei at weialber@dial.pipex.com,
Julie Dennis at jdennis@absnw.com or visit
Massachusetts
Legislation is currently being the Senate that would allow adult adoptees
to obtain their original birth certificates upon request. For more
information contact Deb Schwarz at DebSPR@aol.com
Missouri
Missouri Open 2000 is a coalition of adoptees and birthparents proposing
legislation for the 2000 legislative session that would unseal the original
birth certificate to an adult adoptee upon request. For more information,
please contact Judy Kennett at jkennett@nwlink.com
Michigan
The Adoption Identity Movement of Michigan is seeking input on proposed
legislation that would unseal the original birth certificate to an adult
adoptee upon request. Please contact them at DGeorgeW@aol.com for more
information.
Oregon
The Oregon Court of Appeals extended the stay on Oregon's open
records law
to January 31, 2000. Oral arguments are scheduled to be heard on
November
22, 1999. To keep up with the latest happenings with Measure 58,
visit the
Measure 58 website at http://www.plumsite.com/oregon
South Carolina
In May 1999, HB 4054 was introduced in the South Carolina House of
Representatives. This bill seeks to allow the agency responsible for
placement to furnish the identity of an adoptee to birthparent and
siblings; or the identity of a birthparent and siblings to an adoptee, if
the adoptee is 21 or older. This bill does remove the existing disclosure
veto system, however fails to remove a provision that would allow a court
to deny the request upon show of good cause, instead seeking to make some
procedural changes to it. This bill is scheduled for a hearing in January
2000. We encourage South Carolinians to contact their legislators and ask
them to support a clean open records bill.
Tennessee
On September 27, 1999, the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the law
passed in
1995 that made all adoption records available to adult adoptees
when it
unanimously ruled in favor of the defendants in Doe. V.
Sundquist. Unfortunately this is not a true open records law as
it
includes a disclosure veto for adoptees that are a product of
rape or
incest, as well as a contact veto that applies to all adoptees.
This
brings to a close the 4 year long court battle that explored,
among other
things, a birthparent's constitutional right to keep personal
information
private from their relinquished offspring. The Tennessee Supreme
Court
opined, in part "that the confidentiality of records is a
statutory matter
left to the legislature. Absent a fundamental right or other
compelling
reason, we reject the invitation to extend constitutional
protection to the
non-disclosure of personal information." To read the full
decision visit
http://www.plumsite.com/tn/Doeopn.html
w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
(This feature first appeared in the Fall 1999 issue of the Bastard Quarterly.)
Copyright 1999 Bastard
Nation
All Rights Reserved