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 Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization, the largest adoptee civil rights organization in North America, opposes S799. We recommend that this bill be defeated on the Senate floor S799 permits some New Jersey adopted adults to receive their true and accurate original birth certificates. Others, through the compromise language of the birthparent disclosure veto, will receive only a false and mutilated government document with the name and address of the parent(s) bureaucratically excised by the Department of Health and Senior Services by order of the birthparent(s). Bastard Nation rejects the special right of birthparents to remove their names from the birth certificates of their own adult offspring. No other parent has that right. Why should birthparents have different rules? We are also troubled that the bill requires birthparents, under specific circumstances, to submit a medical and health history to the state, a requirement that is most likely illegal under HIPAA and other privacy laws. Since 1999 four states have restored to adoptees the unrestricted right to records and identity access: Oregon through ballot initiative, and Alabama, New Hampshire, and Maine through legislation. Why should New Jersey buck the tide and pass a bill that continues to treat adoptee access to Continue Reading →