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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 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 74
years old! 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, 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". 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 Adopted Children Should Be Able to View Adoption Records, http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/index.php 1997 Cornell University Study Indicates Adoptive Parents http://www.txcare.org/surveyab/stats/adoptionrecord_ssl.html
Keep updated on New York's progress for open records. 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.
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