New Hampshire anti-abortion politicians Rep Fran Wendelboe and former State Rep Phyllis Woods have gotten their socks in a bunch over HB 184. The bill repeals the state’s 2003 parental notification law that requires doctors to notify at least one parent 48 hours before performing an abortion on a minor. The other day the two Republican warhorses tossed a couple of tired chestnuts at repeal supporters: minors need parental consent to get their ears pierced or get an aspirin from the school nurse. It follows, they argue, that parents should have a right to a “say” in their minor daughters’ decision to get an abortion. Wendelboe and Woods, however, haven’t always been so concerned about that parental “say.” In 2003, while they were busy saving fetuses, Woods sponsored and Wendelboe backed HB 104, New Hampshire’s Safe Haven newborn abandonment law that encourages these minor daughters to hide pregnancies from their parents, forgo prenatal care, and give birth alone and in secret in places like bathtubs or hotel rooms. The law lets these “desperate mothers” then anonymously drop-off their newborns at the neighborhood fire or police station or hospital, or even at a church with no questions asked– and return home Continue Reading →

Lately, Bastardette, has been derelict in blogitating. While agit-prop is fun (most of the time) I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time this past week researching, writing and tweaking testimony for some upcoming legislation. I’ll keep this eloquent gem under wraps until it’s actually submitted. We don’t want to give the enemy a heads up, do we? Over the next week I’ll try to catch up on some half-written bloviations and get back to a modicum of regular posting. Starting off– this comes under the heading of “just when you think it can’t get any worse.” North Carolina media reported yesterday the discovery of two dead newborns, one in Rocky Mount the other in Warsaw. Officials, of course, are “stunned” that “young desperate mothers” aren’t using the state’s “safe surrender” law. WRAL (print and video) reporter Christi Lowe says either “not enough women know about the law — or if they do, they’re not using it.” Try Door #2, Christi. Here’s what stuns the unstunnable Bastardette: Social worker Regina Wesley tells Lowe that she and other social workers at the Cumberland County Health Department counsel every woman who comes in for a pregnancy test about safe havens. Does she also Continue Reading →

California there they went! Our girls are still on the run! Carlos Rivera, the 18-year boyfriend of one of the desperados, says his girlfriend called him and an aunt about four days ago, and that the trio is probably in California. A news update posted a few hours ago claims that the New Hope van has been ditched in Cal, though no city was mentioned. Gina Castro, mother of Rivera’s girlfriend, isn’t too happy with the handling of the case by American Fork Police Chief Lance Call. Call, she claims, won’t talk to her personally, preferring to let the unhappily frying panned, Jana Moody act as his sock puppet. Call defends his odd behavior claiming he simply wants to get along with Castro and the other parents. “Some people get very intimidated in talking to a police officer directly,” he assures. “If we can just keep this as cooperative as we can, we’ll be in a lot better shape for everyone.” Why Call believes the parents are uncooperative remains a mystery. GINA CASTRO SPILLS HER BEANS:Mother Castro now admits that Bad Daughter, didn’t really enjoy the scenic view from her New Hope cell (or maybe it was that red, white, Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization–the largest adoptee civil rights organization in North America– opposes LB 6 which if enacted would permit parents to “legally” abandon infants 30 days old or less. Because infants surrendered under LB 6 are expected to be placed for adoption, Bastard Nation’s objections to LB 6 focus on how the law will effect negatively the civil rights of adoptees. (1) LB 6 erodes adoptee civil rights by increasing the number of anonymous children available for adoption through unethical and unprofessional practices. LB 6 establishes parallel child welfare systems, where one system opposes the long-standing principles of the other. Those long-standing principles are informed consent and a full record of identifying information and social and medical histories. LB 6 eliminates adoptees’ rights to identity by denying their access to original birth and heritage records. Safe Haven laws were enacted right after Oregon and Alabama restored adopted adults’ right to their original birth records. That was no coincidence. The National Council for Adoption (NCFA), a trade organization of conservative adoption agencies dedicated to sealed and secret adoptions and opposed to adoptee identity rights have admitted before various state legislatures, that Safe Haven laws are the response to Continue Reading →

Here’s more out of Utah on our teens behaving badly. News reports verify that I was correct. New Hope Maternity Home..er… excuse me….”group home” is the late residence of our runaways. According to this morning’s Salt Lake City Tribune, after whacking Jana Moody, wife of New Hope owner Spencer Moody, in in the head with a frying pan, one of the girls apologized. “You’re a good person.” We just need to do what we need to do.” Indeed! Spencer Moody remains clueless as to why the girls may have found his mountain retreat anything less than an exceedingly pleasant experience, though he admitted that most of them “are not happy to be there when they first arrive.” And the maternity girls’ parents were certainlly pleased with New Hope’s results. “We’ve had parents call us and thank us for giving their girls back the way they used to be.” They returned home virgins? Mr. Mooney, told the Trib that he plans to close New Hope. “After this, we’ve decided it’s the end of it.” AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So far no word on where the girls have gone. A national attempt-to-locate alert was issued for the van. The girls also confiscated Jana Moody’s credit Continue Reading →

I’m in the middle of some other projects and won’t be able to post for a few days, but I had to share this news story out of Utah. The girls must have been reading Ann Fessler–or OSUA. Hmm, no. Silly me! They’d not be allowed near a library or a computer. They’re Maternity Camp inmates. Pregnant teens beat up group home employee then steal her vanThe girls, ages 15 and 16, may be headed out of stateBy Nate CarlisleThe Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated:01/18/2007 10:59:35 AM MST Posted: 10:55 AM- Three pregnant teenagers at a group home in American Fork are accused of beating their caretaker with a frying pan, tying her up and driving off in her van. Police are still looking for the three girls, who are from Illinois, Texas and California. The stolen vehicle is described as a 2005 Dodge Caravan, Utah license plate 128VTX. Police are not disclosing the girls’ names. The attack occurred Tuesday morning at a state-licensed home near 1000 North and 400 East that provides services to pregnant teenagers, said American Fork Police Sgt. Shauna Greening. “We haven’t had any problems with that home before,” Greening said. A caretaker at the Continue Reading →

Blogger Fauxclaud taped the Montel Williams Show the other day. Her venture into the talk-o-sphere, where she attempted–and I emphasize attempted–to hold a cogent discussion on the pathetic state of contemporary adoption can be found in her Musings of the Lame, Montel, Not the Great Hope at All (January 12, 2007). Since I don’t want to spoil Claud‘s story, I won’t comment other than to say that Claud’s experience with Montel mirrors my own time in hell with John Walsh. The only difference is that Claud received a $25 per diem, and a free Montel t-shirt and hat for having the forethought to leave her baseball bat at home, while I received a $60 per diem and got to pose backstage for a picture with Walsh after the show. Thankfully, John Walsh didn’t demand of me “How can I get a baby?” Welcome, Claud, to the Sacred Hall of Adoption Media Martyrs! Patsies, set-ups, fools, naifs, suckers, and rubes all. It’s not like we don’t know that the talk show circuit is a big fat-ass circus that we should take as seriously as Paris Hilton’s 2006 abstinence pledge. For some inexplicable reason, though, we are old fashioned. We are moths. Continue Reading →

BB Church’s announcement that the triad is dead is getting around fast. While wandering mindlessly thorugh the streets of Columbus I happened across the above sign. Anyone involved in retail will tell you, when a store says it’s “temporariy closed” it really means it’s dead. Now let’s go after the real enemy!

Lately the media as been abuzz over sperm donors. Kicked off in large part by Mary Cheney’s announcment of impending motherhood-by-donor insemination followed by Katrina Clark’s Washington Post op-ed, there’s been a steady stream of articles, commentaries, blogs, and forum discussions. Scientific American, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Washington Blade, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Bay Area Indy Media, and of course, Salon, have all paid their two cents to get into the freak show. In Kansas, a sperm donor is suing a lesbian couple to have the right to play a role in their twins’ lives. An Ontario court last week granted parental rights to the other half of a lesbian couple; thus, recognizing her, her partner (the biological mother) and the friend who donated his sperm, (he is listed on the birth certificate), as the 3 legal parents of the child. Even the NRO’s normally abhorrent David Frum, weighed in rather reasonably for once: The sperm donation industry exists only because the government agrees to enforce the contracts that make the whole thing possible. The man sells his paternal rights for $25 or $50; in exchange, the woman disclaims any right to support – and through this contract, the Continue Reading →

It’s official! SB 2690, the Massachusetts bill that would have made some adoptees more equal than others, is dead. Outgoing governor Mitt Romney pocketed the bill. Of course, Bastardette, Bastard Nation, MARTA and all those who hold that records access are a right for all, not a whimsical dole-out for some, are thrilled. If this were New Year’s Eve we’d be popping corks. The downside though, is that Romney probably refused to sign the bill for all the wrong reasons. We find it incomprehensible that Romney, an L-d-S member in good standing, believes adoptees deserve anything but a baby buggy in every pot; a parent in every garage. ABC, (Access to Uncertified Original Birth Certificates) who sponsored the original bill and let it get out of control with apparently little desire to stop it, was strangely quiet in the last few months. Well, everybody was. In the last year countless phone calls, emails, and letters to the bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. Susan Fargo and key Mass leggies went unanswered. Every adoption reform/open records organization, national and Massachusetts-based, that I know of was stonewalled (except for ABC, I guess). Shut out. Even members of the press. Just like our records, the Continue Reading →