BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: AMEND TEXAS HB 984
* * * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * * *
(Please Distribute Immediately and Widely)
Issued May 11 , 2015
URGE THE TEXAS STATE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO
AMEND HB 984 OR VOTE NO
Bill Text: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/…/8…/billtext/html/HB00984I.htm
Bill House Analysis: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/84R/analysis/html/HB00984H.htm
HB 984 (Deshotel) having cleared the House, now comes before the Senate State Affairs Committee. While the bill language is clean regarding adoptee access to their own original birth certificate, the accompanying Contact Preference Form is in reality a Contact Veto.
Section 2 and Section 3 of the bill would provide a birthparent a new affirmative right to “authorize” or “not authorize” contact, by their adult adoptee. The language of “prefer”, as utilized in Oregon, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Maine, was lobbied OUT of this bill. By replacing this single word, it changes the intent of adoptee autonomy.
Texas HB 984 has been assigned to the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee. Currently, as written, the bill has a contact veto. Contact Vetoes make contacting the biological parent a potentially criminal act and deny adoptee’s due process under the law.
Please, write the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee and urge them to amend HB 984 language striking out “authorize” and replacing it with “prefer” or to vote “Do NOT Pass”.
The bill may be taken up in committee this week. Write (TEMPLATE BELOW) and email lawmakers (CONTACT INFO BELOW) to urge them to stop the bill in the Senate State Affairs Committee.
E-MAIL TEMPLATE
SUBJECT: AMEND HB 984 OR VOTE NO
RE: HB 984
POSITION: AMEND OR VOTE NO
To the Honorable Members of the Texas State Senate State Affairs Committee,
I write today to URGE AMENDMENT to HB 984. Failing amendment, I seek your NO VOTE. I thank the author, Rep. Joe Deshotel, for his efforts to introduce a bill with access rights for adult adoptees to their own original birth certificate. Unfortunately, the bill, in both Section 2 and Section 3, includes a Contact Veto, in the guise of a “Contact Preference Form”. In reality, this language is an abomination of law born out of Oregon, and upheld by the State Supreme Court. It instead places an affirmative right to “not authorize” contact with and by a birth parent.
ADULTS, adopted as children, will one day have their rights restored to them, equal and on par to the non-adopted. However, this vehicle of HB 984 is no longer it.
I STRONGLY URGE YOUR VOTE TO AMEND HB 984. Thank you for your time and service.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
RAPID EMAIL CUT-N-PASTE
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[email protected]
For those needing commas in between addresses.
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E-mail today! Your letters and phone calls DO make a difference!
Bastard Nation | P. O. Box 9959 | Spokane, WA 99209