Change is right around the corner, but only if those associated with adoption really want that change.
You are the ones who vote the legislators in Raleigh into their positions. So they are suppose to listen to you as their constituents. However if you never write or call them they do cannot read your mind as to what you want them to vote favorably for.
When I go out to adoptionforums.com, under search and reunion, I see all of these people who want to find some loved one. The NC Coalition is trying to get that for those people in allowing them to be able to utilize the confidential intermediary program.
But the organization cannot do it alone. It does need everyone who happens upon this blog to help by writing to their legislator today.
We have bill HB 1463 Expand Access Confidential Intermediary passed through the House, but now it is back in the Senate JII committee, because members of the NC Family Policy Council are working the legislators, and telling them if they make this new change women will abort their children instead of giving them up for adoption.
This agency clearly does not know the law, just as many of our legislators do not understand that records are only SEALED upon the FINALIZATION OF ADOPTION, so you can NEVER legally promise a birthmother confidentiality. Her child may NEVER be adopted.
Plus, our legislators continue to spend our tax dollars, in the attempt of telling which adult can talk or contact another adult. Does this happen in any other aspect of life other than adoption? No, it doesn't, and shouldn't for adoptees and birthparents or adoptees and siblings or adoptees and other blood related family members. All adoption did was substitute one blood related family for one which is not blood related.
We cannot make the much needed changes without YOU those who are associated through adoption, or friends and family who are NOT associated with adoption in contacting your legislators.
If you read this blog and would like to assist, please contact us at nccar@mindspring.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
NC Family Policy Council - Rebuttal to Anonymous for Life
Any Birth parent who has relinquished a child/children with the expectation that these children would be adopted need to be made aware that some relinquished children are never adopted; therefore their original birth certificates will NEVER be sealed by the State.
In a standard relinquishment, signed at minimum amount of hours/days following the birth of the child, the birth parent according to DSS-1804:
7. That I understand that when the adoption is final, all of my rights and duties with respect to the minor will be extinguished and all other aspects of my legal relationship with the minor child will be terminated;
9. That I hereby waive notice of any proceeding for adoption;
And last of all:
15 That I understand unless revoked in accordance with G.S. 48-3-706 or #13 above, my Relinquishment is final and irrevocable except under the circumstances set forth in G.S. 48-3-707.
When prospective adoptive parents take a child home, the clock starts ticking for the 7 Day period required by NC law before the adoption may be finalized in court.
Until that court hearing, neither adoption records nor the original birth certificate is sealed.
If a relinquished child goes into foster care or an institution, or dies before an adoption is finalized, the original birth certificate will not be sealed.
It stands to reason that once the relinquishment is signed, the birth parent is "as if dead," because regardless of what happens to the child, she's signed away her right to be notified.
Thus, any alleged "promise of confidentiality" is meaningless. In signing the document that she hoped would assure her child of an adoptive placement, she became persona non grata (a person who for some reason is not wanted or welcome).
Given these facts, how can any relinquishing parent be assured of "confidentiality"?
In a standard relinquishment, signed at minimum amount of hours/days following the birth of the child, the birth parent according to DSS-1804:
7. That I understand that when the adoption is final, all of my rights and duties with respect to the minor will be extinguished and all other aspects of my legal relationship with the minor child will be terminated;
9. That I hereby waive notice of any proceeding for adoption;
And last of all:
15 That I understand unless revoked in accordance with G.S. 48-3-706 or #13 above, my Relinquishment is final and irrevocable except under the circumstances set forth in G.S. 48-3-707.
When prospective adoptive parents take a child home, the clock starts ticking for the 7 Day period required by NC law before the adoption may be finalized in court.
Until that court hearing, neither adoption records nor the original birth certificate is sealed.
If a relinquished child goes into foster care or an institution, or dies before an adoption is finalized, the original birth certificate will not be sealed.
It stands to reason that once the relinquishment is signed, the birth parent is "as if dead," because regardless of what happens to the child, she's signed away her right to be notified.
Thus, any alleged "promise of confidentiality" is meaningless. In signing the document that she hoped would assure her child of an adoptive placement, she became persona non grata (a person who for some reason is not wanted or welcome).
Given these facts, how can any relinquishing parent be assured of "confidentiality"?
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Anonymous for Life??? Should Adoption Be?
We are in a new year, and the short Legislative Session. During the last session, HB1463 - Expand Access / Confidential Intermediary passed in the House 114 - 0 with 2 no votes. It was placed on the Senate calendar for May 19, 2010.
Since then, the NC Family Policy Council, has been spreading propaganda that if this bill is passed, and birthmothers are not able to keep their secret to the grave, then birthmothers will have no other recourse but to abort their children. How silly can they be?
What part of 'you can't promise a birthmother confidentiality' - LEGALLY does the NC Family Policy Council not understand?
I will repeat myself for their benefit one more time. Adoption Records are NOT sealed UNTIL the FINALIZATION OF ADOPTION.... NOT UPON RELINQUISHMENT!!!!
If a woman relinquishes her child for adoption, and that child is NEVER adopted, then there will be NO SEALING of the ORIGINAL Birth Certitificate.... When the child becomes an adult and requests a birth certificate they WILL get their original birth certificate with the birthmother's name ON IT!!!!
Even Foster Children receive copies of their OBC in their LIFEBOOKS!!
What this new bill will do is to allow siblings, 1/2 siblings, and other family members of a DECEASED birthparent to utilize the Confidential Intermediary program which went into effect in 2008. This bill also unfortunately has a type of VETO in it that if the birthmother does not want access, then these folks will be denied access to the CI program.
The NCFPC states the Violations are: "The CI program only requires one party in order for a search to be initiated and a non-consenting person to be contacted about an adoption. "
****This is done by an adoption agency, not by any of the people involved in the adoption. (And personally, I would have to state when they talk about "non-consenting" how much consent does an adoptee have into their adoption? - NONE)****
There is more contact today through the internet person to person, then through the CI program. Would they rather people find on their own and contact the 'unsuspecting' birthmother themselves?
As far as their statement that women will choose abortion over adoption, I would challenge the NCFPC to show proof. After all, there have been 6 states to open up access to original birth certificates to adult adoptees since 2000, and in each of those states, the abortion rate is lower than the national rate is. You can see this for yourself on the American Adoption Congress website at: http://americanadoptioncongress.org/reform_adoption_data.php
In their concluding statement, they state:
"A decree of adopiton effects a complete substitution of families for all LEGAL purposes after the entry of the decree". BINGO..... NOT BEFORE
"A decree of adoption severs the relationship of parent and child between the individual adopted and that individual's biological or previous adoptive parents... the former parents are divested of ALL RIGHTS with respect to the adoptee.
I have to rest my case with this, as I have been saying all along. A birthmother has NO RIGHTS after the adoption, but they keep saying they do????????
"It is not right for the state to change a law under which closed adoptions have historically taken place. Such adoptions are based on the assured anonymity of parents' identities, and HB 1463 would increase the opportunity for those difficult decisions to be violated."
Are we still living in the 1940's? That is what they would have us think. Laws change everyday. That is the purpose of our legisalture, to see that when an obsolete law such as Chapter 48 needs revision, that it is revised. The number of women who do NOT want contact with the children they gave birth to, is overwelmingly in the minority. You can see this in the states who have granted access. (http://americanadoptioncongress.org/pdf/or_al_nh_me_contact_stats.pdf)
Why should our legislature be establishing and keeping laws on what 'strangers' can and cannot talk with one another? That after all is what birthparents and adoptees are....STRANGERS when they meet.
It is clearly because they want to control the confidentiality of the ADOPTIVE parents. However, with this bill, THEY do not have a say, as we are talking all about ADULTS. There are no CHILDREN involved in this bill.
Last but not least, within the Chapter 48 Statute, in the Intent, it states: "to protect the privacy of the parties to the adoption,... " It does not state from who or what. But let it be known that there is a big difference between PRIVACY and CONFIDENTIALITY.
As citizens we are ALL promised some degrees of PRIVACY.
Right to Privacy:
Sealed records proponents claim that birth parents have a right to remain anonymous from their offspring and often articulate this claim as stemming from a constitutional "right to privacy." However, the courts have generally determined that the federal constitutional right to privacy means protection of individuals from government intrusion. A number of states have explicit right to privacy provisions in their constitutions that may provide greater protections than those provided under the federal constitution.
However a Tennessee judge put it very succintley regarding birthmother CONFIDENTIALITY....
"There simply has never been an absolute guarantee or even a reasonable expectation by the birth parent or any other party that adoption records were permanently sealed. In fact, reviewing the history of adoption statutes in this state reveals just the opposite."
WHY does this apply to NC also? Because laws change. Chapter 48 has been changed many times, and will be so in the future. After all, adoption records were only sealed in the 1930's in NC. The Original Birth Certificate was not sealed until 1945. So between the 1930's and 1945, adoptees could obtain a copy of their original birth certificate. So who's rights were being protected?
Please if you believe it is unfair for ADULTS to be REGULATED by our legislators, and that the NCFPC is way out of line in their assumptions and propoganda, then write your legislator TODAY and let him know that the people associated with adoption, should NOT be treated any differently then anyone else.
Let them know they should NOT be wasting YOUR TAX dollars on deciding who can and cannot talk with one another.
Please go to the NC Coalition for Adoption Reform website for more information regarding this.
Since then, the NC Family Policy Council, has been spreading propaganda that if this bill is passed, and birthmothers are not able to keep their secret to the grave, then birthmothers will have no other recourse but to abort their children. How silly can they be?
What part of 'you can't promise a birthmother confidentiality' - LEGALLY does the NC Family Policy Council not understand?
I will repeat myself for their benefit one more time. Adoption Records are NOT sealed UNTIL the FINALIZATION OF ADOPTION.... NOT UPON RELINQUISHMENT!!!!
If a woman relinquishes her child for adoption, and that child is NEVER adopted, then there will be NO SEALING of the ORIGINAL Birth Certitificate.... When the child becomes an adult and requests a birth certificate they WILL get their original birth certificate with the birthmother's name ON IT!!!!
Even Foster Children receive copies of their OBC in their LIFEBOOKS!!
What this new bill will do is to allow siblings, 1/2 siblings, and other family members of a DECEASED birthparent to utilize the Confidential Intermediary program which went into effect in 2008. This bill also unfortunately has a type of VETO in it that if the birthmother does not want access, then these folks will be denied access to the CI program.
The NCFPC states the Violations are: "The CI program only requires one party in order for a search to be initiated and a non-consenting person to be contacted about an adoption. "
****This is done by an adoption agency, not by any of the people involved in the adoption. (And personally, I would have to state when they talk about "non-consenting" how much consent does an adoptee have into their adoption? - NONE)****
There is more contact today through the internet person to person, then through the CI program. Would they rather people find on their own and contact the 'unsuspecting' birthmother themselves?
As far as their statement that women will choose abortion over adoption, I would challenge the NCFPC to show proof. After all, there have been 6 states to open up access to original birth certificates to adult adoptees since 2000, and in each of those states, the abortion rate is lower than the national rate is. You can see this for yourself on the American Adoption Congress website at: http://americanadoptioncongress.org/reform_adoption_data.php
In their concluding statement, they state:
"A decree of adopiton effects a complete substitution of families for all LEGAL purposes after the entry of the decree". BINGO..... NOT BEFORE
"A decree of adoption severs the relationship of parent and child between the individual adopted and that individual's biological or previous adoptive parents... the former parents are divested of ALL RIGHTS with respect to the adoptee.
I have to rest my case with this, as I have been saying all along. A birthmother has NO RIGHTS after the adoption, but they keep saying they do????????
"It is not right for the state to change a law under which closed adoptions have historically taken place. Such adoptions are based on the assured anonymity of parents' identities, and HB 1463 would increase the opportunity for those difficult decisions to be violated."
Are we still living in the 1940's? That is what they would have us think. Laws change everyday. That is the purpose of our legisalture, to see that when an obsolete law such as Chapter 48 needs revision, that it is revised. The number of women who do NOT want contact with the children they gave birth to, is overwelmingly in the minority. You can see this in the states who have granted access. (http://americanadoptioncongress.org/pdf/or_al_nh_me_contact_stats.pdf)
Why should our legislature be establishing and keeping laws on what 'strangers' can and cannot talk with one another? That after all is what birthparents and adoptees are....STRANGERS when they meet.
It is clearly because they want to control the confidentiality of the ADOPTIVE parents. However, with this bill, THEY do not have a say, as we are talking all about ADULTS. There are no CHILDREN involved in this bill.
Last but not least, within the Chapter 48 Statute, in the Intent, it states: "to protect the privacy of the parties to the adoption,... " It does not state from who or what. But let it be known that there is a big difference between PRIVACY and CONFIDENTIALITY.
As citizens we are ALL promised some degrees of PRIVACY.
Right to Privacy:
Sealed records proponents claim that birth parents have a right to remain anonymous from their offspring and often articulate this claim as stemming from a constitutional "right to privacy." However, the courts have generally determined that the federal constitutional right to privacy means protection of individuals from government intrusion. A number of states have explicit right to privacy provisions in their constitutions that may provide greater protections than those provided under the federal constitution.
However a Tennessee judge put it very succintley regarding birthmother CONFIDENTIALITY....
"There simply has never been an absolute guarantee or even a reasonable expectation by the birth parent or any other party that adoption records were permanently sealed. In fact, reviewing the history of adoption statutes in this state reveals just the opposite."
WHY does this apply to NC also? Because laws change. Chapter 48 has been changed many times, and will be so in the future. After all, adoption records were only sealed in the 1930's in NC. The Original Birth Certificate was not sealed until 1945. So between the 1930's and 1945, adoptees could obtain a copy of their original birth certificate. So who's rights were being protected?
Please if you believe it is unfair for ADULTS to be REGULATED by our legislators, and that the NCFPC is way out of line in their assumptions and propoganda, then write your legislator TODAY and let him know that the people associated with adoption, should NOT be treated any differently then anyone else.
Let them know they should NOT be wasting YOUR TAX dollars on deciding who can and cannot talk with one another.
Please go to the NC Coalition for Adoption Reform website for more information regarding this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)