Betsie Norris from Adoption Network Cleveland issued the action alert (below) this afternoon.
After attending yesterday’s hearing it is evident to me that the committee needs to hear the voice of first parents. This may be about OUR identity and rights, but the committee is seriously balking over first mother “privacy”–and that’s the hurdle we need to jump to get access back in the bill, passed, and on to the House floor.
I was planning on contacting some moms personally, but this action alert makes it easier.
If you are an Ohio mom or an adoptee or an adoptive parent from the closed black hole era of 1964 – 1996 and you support our right to recordds, please come and testify or to just show your support for us. Let them know that there was no other option but sealed and secret.
Join us at the Statehouse, testimony and truth in hand. Snow them under with the truth!
If you can’t testify, then submit written testimony to the committee. Kara Joseph, aide to sponsor Tom Brinkman, told me she will accept submitted testimony marked as such, duplicate it and make sure it gets to the Committee for the April 30 hearing. [email protected]
We need to keep the pressure on. There have been a lot of calls and emails to committee members and we need more. Call or write today!
While you need to contact Betsie if you want to testify, please let me know as well if you’ve read this here.
Action Needed! Please forward this email widely
Bill Hearing Wednesday April 30, 2008 – Columbus Ohio
Up until last week, Ohio House Bill 7 contained language that would allow Ohio adult adoptees access to their original birth certificate upon their request. This is something that Adoption Network Cleveland and others across the state have been working on diligently over the last 20 years. Last week, that language was stripped from the bill.
The legislators are very concerned about birthparent privacy. They are assuming that if a birthparent placed a child in a closed record adoption (the only option available at that time) between 1964 and 1996, that allowing the adult adoptee access to their original birth certificate is an affront to the birthparent’s privacy.
They need to hear directly from birthparents whose children were adopted in Ohio between January of 1964 and September of 1996 to gain an accurate view of what birthparents want. Adult adoptees or adoptive parents in reunion with birthparents from that era are also needed. Also, professionals who have worked with birthparents from that era would be helpful.
Please attend the next hearing on House Bill 7 and testify – have your voice heard! The hearing will be at the Ohio Statehouse at 4 pm Wednesday April 30, 2008 – room 017. Advocates will meet outside of the hearing room starting at 3 pm. If you can come to the hearing and would like to testify (or discuss testifying), please contact Betsie Norris at Adoption Network Cleveland [email protected] and H.B. 7 sponsor Tom Brinkman’s legislative aide Kara Joseph at [email protected].
To sign up for email legislative alerts, go to http://www.adoptionnetwork.org/content.asp?pageid=274 and fill out the form on the right hand side of the page.
Thank you!
Betsie Norris
Executive Director
Adoption Network Cleveland
4614 Prospect, Suite 550
Cleveland, Ohio 44103
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www.adoptionnetwork.org
Changing Lives…Creating Futures
forwarding!