Tag Archives: Illinois

ILLINOIS: MITCHELL-FEIGENHOLTZ SPIN MACHINE GOES INTO ACTION! WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF?

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On March 31, Melisha Mitchell, putative author of Sara Feigenholtz’s notorious 77-page monster HB 4623 sent a mass mailing to AdoptionLand constituents asking for support. In this letter, Ms. Mitchell plays games with numbers, flogs the Illinois Registry, and claims that the only “real” opposition to the bill comes from “right-to-life” groups and “obscure internet entities.” The “obscure internet entities” she forgets to mention include Illinois Open, Bastard Nation, the Green Ribbons, Ethica, A Day for Adoptee Rights, BJ Lifton, Carol Schaefer, Sandra White Hawk, Maine Senator Paula Benoit, and New Hampshire Representative Janet Allen. “Obscure” indeed! Scroll down to my entry “Illinois Adoption Reform Coalition Urges: Reject HB 4623” for the Illinois Adoption Reform letter these and other prominent adoption reformers and activists signed and sent to the Illinois Legislature and the media last week. The Mitchell-Feigenholtz spin machine thought the rest of us would roll over. We have not and will not. Mitchell’s letter raises all sorts of questions: How “simple” can a 77-page procedure be? Why are some adoptees more deserving than others? Why are birthparents and other relatives (!) given 5 disclosure “choices”? How, ethically, can a birthparent for the cost of $40 wipe out their Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS: ASTOUNDING CLAIM–MOST ADOPTEES ALREADY HAVE THE NAMES OF THEIR BIRTHPARENTS!

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Recently, an Illinois adoptee sent me an email from Melisha Mitchell regarding HB 4623’s provision on deceased birth parents. In it Ms. Mitchell makes the astounding claim that 80-90% of Illinois adoptees already know the names of their birthparents, particularly the names of their first mothers! I am publishing this letter in full, with permission of the recepient, but am withholding the name upon request. I have highlighted the most egregious statements in yellow. Dear XXX: Thanks for all your (really good) questions regarding the pending Illinois legislation. I was in Springfield last week, and came home to dozens of emails on the bill…including yours…and shall do my utmost to answer your questions… In a message dated xxx, XXX writes: >Will birth parent “requests for anonymity” eventually expire under HB 4623? Yes, under the proposed law, all birth parent requests for anonymity throughthe Registry will expire upon the birth parent’s death. >How will the State of Illinois know when/if the birth parent has died? I can see if a death >certificate is issued in Illinois – what about anywhere else in the world? As you point out, if the birth parent died in Illinois (or was born in Illinois, which Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS OPEN’S ANITA FIELD: "…FEIGENHOLTZ FOLLOWED HER OWN PATH – ONE OF COMPROMISE…"

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Here are some recent comments from Illinois Open’s Anita Field. “Curiously,” we only learned of the impending March 12 introduction of Amendment 1 (aka a re-write of the bill) on Monday March 10 in an article in the Chicago Trib. Tuesday, March 11 Anita entered the hospital for scheduled surgery. We were told by Feigenholtz’s office that the vote on Wednesday would be on the “new language only” not the bill itself. On Wednesday, the bill passed out of committee after a show hearing whlie Anita was in surgery. See previous entry for Reform Coalition statement on HB 4623.We aren’t going away! Dear Illinois Open Friends, Thank you all for your support during the days when Representative Feigenholtz was preparing her bill. I tried my hardest to let her know that adoptees don’t want restrictions put upon them by the state. She countered by saying I’m living in a dream world and don’t understand the underbelly of politics. I worked very hard to persuade Representative Feigenholtz that the time was right for a clean bill, one that would help all adoptees equally. I know many of you wrote to her not once, but several times, without ever receiving a reply. Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS ADOPTION REFORM COALITION URGES: REJECT HB 4623

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On March 28, 2008 Adoption Reform Illinois issued a letter to members of the Illinois House of Representatives and the media. The letter was signed by Illinois Open director Anita Field Walker, Green Ribbons Illinois representative Triona Guidry and 27 prominent adoption reform leaders urging the defeat of HB 4623, a so-called records access bill which would open records to some Illinois adoptees while trapping many in the lucrative Illinois Adoption Registry. (More names may be added to the protest at a later date.) Background leading to this letter can be found in several Bastardette entries for February and March 2008. Later tonight I will post Anita Field’s personal comments about HB 4623 and tomorrow I will publish Melisha Mitchell’s claims regarding the bill and opponents. Additional commentary will follow in the days and weeks to come. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY! NEWS FROM:ADOPTION REFORM ILLINOIS Attn: News Director March 28, 2008 For Immediate Release Contact: Triona Guidry Adoption Reform Coalition Urges: Reject HB 4623 We, the undersigned members of the adoption community, urge legislators to oppose Illinois House Bill 4623. As written, this bill offers some adopted adults the chance to access their original birth certificates, while banning others from accessing Continue Reading →

THE SIMPLICITY OF LANGUAGE: SUCCESSFUL RECORDS ACCESS BILLS

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Maine State Senator Paula Benoit believes that simplicity of language is the key to passage of records access bills. She is correct. Compare the simplicity of language of Oregon Ballot Measure 58, Alabama HB 690, HB New Hampshire SB 335 and Maine LB 1084 to the convoluted 77-page Illinois HB 4623 with its plethora of forms, preferences and vetoes which would confound a busload of Chicago lawyers. Would adopta-doyens Rep. Feigenholtz and Melisha Mitchell care to explain why it takes them 77 pages to write a bill that was covered in two sentences in Oregon, and only a couple pages in Alabama, New Hampshire and Maine? Where’s the pork? OREGONBallot Measure 58:Upon receipt of a written application to the state registrar, any adopted person 21 years of age and older born in the state of Oregon shall be issued a certified copy of his/her unaltered, original and unamended certificate of birth in the custody of the state registrar, with procedures, filing fees, and waiting periods identical to those imposed upon non-adopted citizens of the State of Oregon pursuant to ORS 432.120 and 432.146. Contains no exceptions. ALABAMAHB 690Rep(s). By Representatives Dolbare and Fuller HB690EngrossedUnder existing law, an adopted person born Continue Reading →

SPRINGFIELD SHENNIGHANS: Illinois Adoptees Hustled and Shuffled

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Tuesday, I wrote that Amendment 1 to HB 4623, would be heard by the Illinois House Adoption Reform Committee the next day. This amendment would add limited records access language to the CI fix-it bill which had already passed Rules. I was told by sponsor Rep. Sara Feigenholtz’s office that this hearing was for language approval only. If approved, the amended bill would be published on the Illinois legislative site probably on Friday. I posted that information in good faith, wondering how it would really play out. Now we know. Late yesterday afternoon I was forwarded the email below sent by Melisha Mitchell, the putative author of the bill, with the news that HB 4623 had passed out of the Adoption Reform Committee, 8-1. The only opposition came from Illinois Right to Life. Dear All: I am happy to report that HB 4623, Illinois’ obc access bill, waspassed out of the House Adoption Reform Committee today, 8 votes to1. We had letters of support from most of the state’s prominentadoption agencies and adoptive parents’ groups as well as the supportof the Dept. of Public Health, Dept. of Children and Family Services,NASW, and IL Psychiatrists Assn.; in addition, the Chicago Bar Continue Reading →

ILLINOIS: TRAINWRECK UPDATE

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I spoke to Steve in Sara Feigenholtz’ office this afternoon. As I suspected, the current HB 4623 (CI fix-it bill) will become the records “access” bill. The hearing tomorrow is for reading and approval of the new access records language–which will become Amendment One. If passed the new bill will go up on the Illinois Legislative site probably on Friday. Hearings on that will be scheduled later. When the new bill goes up, I’ll post the link here. After that, the fun begins. UPDATE 3/13/08, 10:05 PMMelisha Mitchell has posted a copy of the proposed amendment on her White Oak Foundation website. The amendment is 77 pages long! Here is her fun FAQ on the bill which is being flogged as “a simple fee-free way for an adoptee who was born in Illinois to request a non-certified copy of his or her original birth certificate.” Well, not ALL adoptees!

ILLINOIS: THAT TRAIN KEEPS A ROLLIN’–MORE PIECE-A-CRAP LEGISLATION

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HEADS UP! According to Kristen Kridel in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune, Sara Feigenholtz’s alleged “records access” bill will be heard in the Adoption Reform Committee of the Illinois House on Thursday. (SF is the committee chair). Feigenholtz and professional confidential intermediary money hound Melisha Mitchell gushed proud during their Monday press conference, which included former Denver Bronco’s fullback and adoptee Howard Griffith and Chicagoland radio personality Steve Cochran. Ms. Feigenholtz, in her prepared speech, glommed a line from DMC, without credit, Chapter 1 of everyone else’s life begins with a birth certificate, a document I and everyone behind me are prohibited from having. WLS elaborated: “We have been deprived of our history and our identity. We have been deprived of the chapter that everyone else in this state simply gets.” Ms. Feigenholtz may talk the talk, but she doesn’t walk the walk. Under her cowardly compromise bill some adoptees are more equal than others. Since the bill doesn’t seem to be on the Illinois Legislative webpage (more about that in a minute) we can only judge from the summary posted in the Trib: Anyone born before January 1946 will get their original birth certificates immediately (their records were sealed retroactively) Anyone Continue Reading →