News From Adoption Reform Illinois

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NEWS FROM:
ADOPTION REFORM ILLINOIS

Attn: News Director March 28, 2008

For Immediate Release Contact: Triona Guidry

We, the undersigned members of the adoption community, urge legislators to oppose Illinois House Bill 4623. As written, this bill offers some adopted adults the chance to access their original birth certificates, while banning others from accessing theirs.

Illinois adoptees should be treated the same as non-adopted Illinoisans who face no birth certificate access restrictions. We urge legislators to reject the current compromise language of this flawed bill, and to create a new bill that will restore the civil right, rescinded in 1945, of all Illinois adopted adults to access their original birth certificates without bureaucratic restraint or third party interference.

This bill is merely a convoluted extension of the existing mandatory intermediary system. It turns equal access to adoptees' public records into a question of search and reunion, instead of addressing the civil right of all persons to access their original birth certificates.

Our organizations are united in our concern that the amended bill was not the bill that was posted for weeks on the Illinois legislative web site. This amended bill was not available online until March 13, 2008, the day the bill passed through committee, making it impossible to present testimony.

“For The Records: Restoring A Right To Adult Adoptees,” a comprehensive study published by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, examines the issue:

http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/research/2007_11_for_records.php

Access to one’s own birth certificate is not a favor to some, but a right for all.

Anita Walker Field

Illinois Open

obc@ilopen.org

Triona Guidry

Green Ribbon Campaign for Open Records

triona@guidryconsulting.com

The attached PDF gives background material about the bill to help your reporter in preparing an article. (NOTE: I'm having with the URL to this. I will post it later...Bastardette)

Signatories:

The Hon. Janet Allen

New Hampshire House of Representatives

Marley Greiner

Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization

Ann Wilmer

Founder

Green Ribbon Campaign for Open Records

Bonnie Pazdan Pierce Spinazze

Co-Founder: Illinois Coalition for Truth in Adoption

Mary L. Fuller

Founder, FamAdopt

Illinois Born and Adopted

Trish Maskew

President

Linh Song, MSW

Executive Director

Ethica, Inc.

Ron Morgan

Kali Coultas

Day For Adoptee Rights

Sandy White Hawk

Executive Director

First Nations Orphan Association

Melissa Holub, Ph.D.

President-Elect

Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology

Betty Jean Lifton, Ph.D.

Adoption Counselor

Author, Journey of the Adopted Self:

A Quest for Wholeness

Carol Schaefer

Author

The Other Mother:

A Woman's Love for the Child She Gave Up for Adoption

Sally Howard

Author

Finding Me In A Paper Bag

Sandra K. Musser

Author

I Would Have Searched Forever

Rick Ouston

Adoptee/Author

Finding Family

Donna Montalbano

Host: Speaking of Adoption

Lindsay Woodside

Missouri Adult Adoptee Rights Coalition (MAARC)

Missouri Open

Pat Marler

Oklahomans for Adoption Reform and Honesty

Betsie Norris

Founder/Executive Director

Adoption Network Cleveland

Sheila Ganz

Bay Area Birthmothers

Filmmaker

Unlocking the Heart of Adoption

Erik L. Smith

Paralegal, Birthfather advocate, author

Mary Anne Cohen

CUB member since 1976

Peter Christian Mose

Illinois Born and Adopted

Arts Educator

Gerald Bailey

Illinois Adoptee

Retired Educator

Msgr. John W. Sweeley, Th.D.

Adoptee and Adoptive Father

Adoptee Rights Activist

Author of the forthcoming

Rights, Liberties, and Social Justice

David Kruchkow

Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform