Bye Bye rights!
As expected S799 passed a floor vote today in the New Jersey Senate 27-10. The bogus obc rights bill now goes to the Assembly.
Even though we oppose the bill, we are galled that opponents spout protectionist drivel:
Many of them may not know what we are doing here,” Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen) said of biological mothers, adding that would not give them the opportunity to protect their identities. He suggested the bill be reworked to protect the rights of everyone involved.
and proponents think this is some kind of heathcare bill:
“While we heard compelling testimony when this bill was before the Health Committee, the most compelling argument to me is the importance of accurate family medical histories in making major health care decisions,” said Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), a sponsor.
Under the bill, biological parents who want to remain anonymous would notify the state registrar. During the one-year allotted period, adoptees would be able to contact the agencies that handled their adoptions to get nonidentifying medical information, including a family medical history, that could alert them to any genetic predispositions they may carry for certain illnesses.
We wonder what the State of Jersey will do when a first mom or dad has no objection to the release of the obc or meeting the adult kid, but has no desire to share her or his private medical history. Waterboard them?
Finally, sponsor, Sen. Joseph Vitale should expect a smack with a wet noodle from NJCare’s Judy Foster for using “track down” to the press. Ms. Foster, a ranking member of the Politically Correct Adoption Language Police, threw a hissy at the AAC the other day when California Assmb. Fiona Ma (the majority whip no less) used the term during a talk on Calilfornia’s ill-fated AB 372.
But Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), a sponsor of the bill (S799), said adoptees already use online resources to track down their biological parents and there is no process for that or control over it.
We’ll keep you updated.
Once again, legislators focus on medical records and family medical histories which have nothing to do with genuine restoration to Original Birth Certificate access.
REAL Bastard rights legislation is about restoring adopted people’s standing under law to that of of non-adopted people.
Equality, nothing more, nothing less.
Whatever access to family medical histories we are or are not granted belongs purely in the realm of the interpersonal, (just like that of our non-adopted peers) not the state mandated.
These medical histories demands built into legislation do more than merely muddy the clarity of what a restored rights bill would mean. Utilization of such tactics is nothing more than a likely HIPAA violation used to drive artificial wedges between Bastards and our families of origin.
As I keep saying, our records have been open for decades, no problems, it’s all crap these objections not based on actuality!Good wishes….
The “medical information” justification for seeking open records seems to have turned around and bitten many supporters in the arse…those who were wanting clean bills. Of course, it is much easier to tell the people who adopted you that you need your medical info than to admit to a need to know your roots and heritage. That way, you have spared the feelings of the adopters and don’t look like an “ungrateful adoptee” to all the rest of the world. I think that, like Topsy, this excuse “just growed.”
If we want our privacy or no contact (which is really ridiculous, if you ask me), we are adult women who know how to say no and enforce it. We don’t need legislators, the NCFA, NOW, and the industry “helping” us. I, and many other mothers like me, are sick of other people speaking for us and thinking that we are so fragile as to need this kind of “protection.”
A simple, clean bill opening access to the original birth certificate, as they are, no tampering by anyone, and then leaving the results of that disclosure up to the adopted adult and mother to work out seems to be a concept that eludes many.
I long for a return to commen sense in our government and society. With this bill, NJ sent both adopted people and mothers who care down a slippery slope. I can only shake my head in disgust. What part of “clean bill” don’t these yahoos understand?
kitta here:
why is it sooo hard for lawmakers, who should know better, to understand the difference between a Vital Record (birth certificate) and a private, legally protected medical record? HIPAA doesn’t protect birth certificates…
Placing access to birth certificates in a bill that gives illegal access to other people’s medical history is bound to cause challenges,at the very least, if it passes.
There is no “right” to the ob/gyn records of mothers who surrendered their children…and yes, those records are in adoption agency files. And, no, they cannot be properly called a “family medical history.”
I am not even sure how one defines “family medical history”…unlike the image of Thanksgiving with everyone chatting up their operations around the turkey a la the surgeon general….I think most families only share bits and pieces of undocumented medical gossip, if that.
Birth certificates..yes.
Private medical history..no…unless given with consent.
Years ago when I first got into this, I saw the “medical history” argument as the coward’s retreat. Obviously, there is nothing bad about having one, and some people need it, BUT it’s the excuse people use to not ask for what they really want. I still feel that, but it’s taken a very nasty turn now that politicizes private information.
I personally was never interested in a medical history I’m still not.
How anyone can argue sensibly that an obc gets you a medical history escapes me Plenty of legos have no idea of their parents medical history.