Tag Archives: Illinois HB 5428

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: STOP HB 5428 – WRITE GOV. PAT QUINN NOW

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Distribute Freely and Quickly! BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT!URGENT!ILLINOIS GROUND ZERO CONTACT GOVERNOR PAT QUINN NOW Don’t let Illinois gut what few rightsIllinois adoptees still possess! This afternoon the Illinois Senate passed HB 5428:the Illinois Adoption CI/Registry Cash Cow Protection Act HB 5428 is NOT an original birth certificate access billHB 5428 is NOT an adoptee rights billHB 5428 is NOT an adoption reform bill HB 5428 is an adoption industry bill, dressed up as obc access, intended to kill rights-based adoptee access to our own birth records. HB 5428 is an Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Exchange (IARME) promotion bill with virtually no support from adoptee rights and adoption reform advocates and organizations. HB 5428 separates adoptees into two classes by date of birth and then into numerous subclasses of “access” and “contact” eligibility dependent on parental and state “consent” HB 5428 “grants” rights to some at the expense of others. HB 5428 criminalizes adoptees that use information from the IARME to locate and contact families of origins. HB 5428 dictates relationships between adults THE BILL IS HERE: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=09600HB5428eng&GA=96&SessionId=76&DocTypeId=HB&LegID=50466&DocNum=5428&GAID=10&Session=HB%3C/span GO HERE FOR BN TESTIMONY AND TALKING POINTS http://bastardnation.blogspot.com/2010/04/bastard-nation-testimony-hb-5428-oppose.html Contact Governor Pat Quinn immediately and ask him to veto HB 5428 Continue Reading →

RIP ILLINOIS: HB 5428 PASSES:. Adoptee Rights Die

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That pernicious piece of crap passed. Tentative vote: 36 yea16 nay2 No vote Senators waxed poetic over the “robust” debate in Judiciary a few days ago!Were they there? Others praised the bill as “brilliantly crafted.”Did they read it? Supporters said, “We are being balanced” by not going “far enough.”Why do they promote “special rights” Supporters spoke eloquently about the “restoral of a right”What about the vetoed left behind? The EB Donaldson “pledged support” for registry/CI “educational” campaign.When did EBD become NCFA? On to Pat Quinn’s office…action alert shortly!

Deja Vu All Over Again–Sneaky Sara Feigenholtz Part 2: Illinois HB 5428 and The Odor of Mendacity

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There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity… You can smell it. It smells like death.……Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ****** This is Part 2 of what has now, due to length, become three parts originally only one blog: Deja Vu All Over Again-Sneaky Sara Feigenholtz, Part 1: HB 5428 State Secret. Please read that entry first to put Part 2 in context. For further context go to my 2008 Illinois Warning! Trainwreck ahead for records rights and Illinois and That train keeps a rollin’–more pile-a-crap legislation. (I wrote more about Illinois in 2008, which you can find in a search, but those are the major pieces). Much of what I wrote then is relevant to the current situation in Illinois. Not much has changed except the bill number. ****** Illinois HB 5428 is a “new and improved” version of HB 4623 and older similar registry/confidential intermediary bills that Rep. Sara Feigenholtz has been flogging for 15 years. All have met with universal opposition from adoptee rights and adoption reform organizations in Illinois and throughout the country either from the onset or due to rights stripping amendments added later. Though she is a “reunited” adoptee Continue Reading →

Bastard Nation Letter to the Illinois Senate: Vote NO on HB 5428

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Below is Bastard Nation’s edited-down-from-testimony letter to the Illinois Senate asking members to VOTE NO. Please contact Senators and tell them to stop this travesty. Go to the BN Action Alert for more information, including contact information. HB 5428 is misleading. The bill’s stated purpose and its final product are diametrically opposed. The bill simply beefs up the current confidential intermediary/registry system that controls adoptee access to their own public records and adds penalties for so-called “misuse” of information from the registry. 1. conflates rights with reunion. It confuses OBC access with contact with a parent. It retains the Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Exchange (IARME), and currently outsources the registry process to the privately owned Midwest Adoption Center as the OBC gateway; thus, keeping the vital records of the state’s adoptees at the mercy and whim of “confidential intermediaries” and paid “searchers” in an inherently arbitrary system accountable to no one. 2. vacates, though parental disclosure veto power (see #4) 750 ILCS 50/10) (from Ch. 40, par. 1512) FINAL AND IRREVOCABLE CONSENT TO ADOPTION 3. divides Illinois’ adopted citizens into two arbitrary classes based solely on date of birth: worthy and unworthy. Worthies are born before January 1, 1946. Continue Reading →

URGENT ACTION ALERT: ILLINOIS HB 5428–CONTACT SENATORS NOW!

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It’s not too late to let your voice be heard! STOP HB 5428 ! Don’t let Illinois continue to gut the rights of Illinois adoptees! TAKE ACTION THIS WEEKEND!CONTACT ILLINOIS SENATORS THE BILL IS HERE: Talking points HB 5428: conflates rights with reunion. It confuses OBC access with contact with a parent. It retains the Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Exchange (IARME), and currently outsources the registry process to the privately owned Midwest Adoption Center as the OBC gateway; thus, keeping the vital records of the state’s adoptees at the mercy and whim of “confidential intermediaries” and paid “searchers” in an inherently arbitrary system accountable to no one. 2. vacates, though parental disclosure veto power (see #4) 750 ILCS 50/10) (from Ch. 40, par. 1512) FINAL AND IRREVOCABLE CONSENT TO ADOPTION which states in part:That I do hereby consent and agree to the adoption of such child. That I wish to and understand that by signing this consent I do irrevocably and permanently give up all custody and other parental rights I have to such child. That I understand such child will be placed for adoption and that I cannot under any circumstances, after signing this document, change my mind Continue Reading →

HB 5428 TESTIMONY: FIRST PERSON ACCOUNTS OF SHUT UP

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Mary Fuller and Triona Guidry have blogged first person accounts of Tuesday’s Illinois Judiciary show hearing for HB 5428. If HB 5428 is so damned great for adoptees, then why do sponsor Rep Sara Feigenholtz and her friends in high places want to keep us silent? Why did they not only hide the bill fro public view, but keep opponents from testsifying? Mary Fuller/Rights of AdopteesCorrupt IL HB 5428…For 30 years I’ve been an advocate for open records. I do understand that HB 5428 is a horrid bill. What I don’t understand is how any legislator who is serving the people can vote Yea. My thought is that the length of the bill was meant to confuse as many as possible. How many legislators actually sat down and read through 80 pages (67 if saved into a Word file). I was at the hearing and saw first-hand how some of the senators were talking among themselves and laughing. Of course I don’t know what they were laughing about but their minds did not seem to be totally on what was being said at the hearing. I won’t go into what all I viewed but the rudeness and disrespect did stand Continue Reading →

MORE COWARDLY ATTACKS ON ILLINOIS BASTARD RIGHTS

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If you don’t believe Illinois HB 5428 is rigged, check out the bill calendar. Note that the Senate Judiciary hearing, held on April 13 (Tuesday) was never announced. We knew about it because we have learned to call and check regularly since the Feigenholtz-Mitchell machine is too cowardly to let the public know what they’re up to–even to the extent of keeping the hearing off bill’s leg page. Not that it did much good. On Tuesday, the chair of Judiciary “permitted” only two people on each side to testify. On the Feigenholtz support side were a man from Alaska (!) and a representative from The Cradle. The chair then thought it would be a good idea to let one person who says the bill went “too far” to speak, and finally OUR side who says the bill “doesn’t go far enough” (these are the words of the chair, not us) and claim it a fraud. Written testimony was ignored and the committee voted DO PASS immediately after the oral testimony, 6-3. So adoptees got screwed again. Sara Feigenholtz and Melisha Mitchell, of course, were elated. Despite Feigenholtz‘ claim Tuesday that the bill wouldn’t receive a floor vote until next month, Continue Reading →

BASTARD NATION TESTIMONY HB 5428

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The Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6-3 to pass HB 5428 on to the Floor. This is one of the saddest days in adoption rights history Apparently proponents believe that something is better than nothing–and this sure is nothing. If the bill becomes law, Illinois is a dead state. Below is Bastard Nation’s submitted testimony. It’s full of facts. And we know, facts don’t count. SUBMITTED TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION TO HB 5428ACCESS TO BIRTH CERTIFICATES FOR ADULT ADOPTEESIllinois Senate Judiciary CommitteeApril 13, 2010 Bastard Nation: the adoptee rights organization is the largest adoptee rights advocacy organization in the United States. We support full, unrestricted access for all adopted persons, upon request, of their own true, unaltered original birth certificates (OBC). We oppose HB 5428 as we have opposed similar bills introduced in the Illinois legislature over the past 15 years. HB 5428 is misleading. The bill’s stated purpose and its final product are diametrically opposed. The bill simply beefs up the current confidential intermediary/registry system that controls adoptee access to their own public records and adds penalties for so-called “misuse” of information from the registry. According to the bill’s introduction: The General Assembly recognizes that it is the basic right Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS: RED ALERT! RED ALERT!–WE NEED YOU NOW!

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It is imperative that people show up in Springfield next Tuesday. This just in from Illinois Open: Illinois HB 5428 is on the move again. A hearing on HB 5428 will be held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, April 13th at 2:30 pm in the Capital 400 Springfield – Springfield, IL Contact: [email protected] [email protected] An action alert is forthcoming and will be posted here as soon as I get it. Don’t let the State of Illinois create more layers of adoption bureaucracy. Don’t let the State of Illinois gut your right to unrestricted access to your birth certificate.

ILLINOIS: MORE BAD NEWS

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Sneaky Sara Feigenholtz’s HB 5428, the Illinois Adoption CI/Registry Cash Cow Protection Act, has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is very bad. Of the 11 members of the Judiciary Committee, two are Senate sponsors: Judiciary Committee Chair AJ Wilhelmi and Ira Silverstein. Other powerful members of the committee are Majority Caucus Whips Terry Link and Don Harmon. Harmon is also the Assistant Majority Leader. And don’t forget, Sara Feigenholtz’s mentor, John Cullerton, is president of the Senate. HB 5428 could be a slam dunk for Sneaky Sara and her adoptee-soaking special interests unless its stopped now. If passed, while other states continue to unseal our original birth certificates and free them from pinch-nosed bureaucrats and politicians without controls and restrictions, Illinois adoptees will be tied up in a ball of red tape for decades. All to fill somebody’s pockets. So far, no Senate hearings have been announced, but then none in the House were announced either, though the bill in its earlier identical forms had huge opposition from adoptee rights advocates. This time around, without public announcement and airing, no one knew this travesty, introduced as a unctuous shell, even existed until it passed the House. Sara Continue Reading →