Adoptees to Get their Original Birth Certificates in IL; Yes, the veto passed too

While we were debating the pros and cons of a birth-parent disclosure veto--in nearly all cases, this means the mother--in bills to allow adoptees access to their original birth certificate (OBC), Illinois passed such a bill last week and on Friday, May 21, 2010 Governor Pat Quinn today signed the bill into law. No longer will court orders be necessary for most adult adoptees to get their OBCs. According to the governor's website:

"...the new law will also help adopted adults learn more about their birth families, including medical histories.

Archived Audio of the Press Conference

"Birth parents who don't want to be found will have a year-and-a-half years to get their names blacked out on their children's birth certificates. But backers expect four out of five birth parents will opt to let their children find them."

We expect that number of birth mothers filing vetoes to be much much smaller, more in line with the contract preference numbers found in Oregon.

The stats from Oregon:

May 31, 2009 - Nine Year Anniversary Report
Records ordered:	10,189
Records issued:	9,772
Contact Preference forms submitted by Parents:	613
Number asking for contact with adoptee:	494
Number asking for contact through an intermediary:	34
Number asking for no contact:	85

And you know what? That number 85 represents less than one percent: .083 to be precise.

Even though the new law contains the despicable birth-parent veto, I am glad this bill passed. This is a good thing; this is better than nothing. And in the long run will set the stage for changing the atmosphere about adoption, searching, and the rights of the adopted. Politics is the art of compromise. When the slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamations of 1862 and 1863, they were not granted the right to vote until six years later, 1869. (Of course mere women of all colors were denied the right to vote until 1920.)

Our sense of political change is that legislators in other states will see that birth-parent disclosure vetoes give birth parents a contract right over another legal body, that is the individual about whom the contract is made. We agree the vetoes suck, we think the legislators who support them do so only by ignoring the unconstitutional right thus granted birth mothers like myself, and eventually such vetoes will be declared unconstitutional since they allow one group of people to violate the rights of another.

But until that day comes, I'll take this kind of progress over nothing.

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz  (center), who was adopted, rejoices Friday after Gov. Quinn signed the law that allows adult adoptees in Illinois to get their birth certificates. (photo by John H. White/Sun-Times)

In the same vein, I'll take the health-care reform bill that passed over nothing. It's fine to get on a high horse and scream that this bill is a travesty; but it is another to then say, well, I'm a purist, and if I can't have all I want, I'll take nothing, and the rest of the adopted people who will get the right to know their original identities can be screwed.

According to the Sun Times:

"The law builds on the state's 1999 birth registry, which facilitates adopted children finding birth parents who don't mind being found. But the new law takes it a step further.
"Today is no doubt the most meaningful day of my life," said state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), who had already tracked down her birth mother.

"Feigenholtz [the bill's sponsor and impetus to get it passed] cried as she said, "I will be able to walk into the state's Office of Vital Records, plunk down my $15, and get a copy of my original birth certificate. On it will be the name of the woman who gave birth to me 53 years ago. To some, it may not sound like a big deal, but it is."

Feigenholtz and other adoptive children and parents at the signing talked about living life with big question marks, searching faces every time they went into a mall, wondering if they could be walking past their lost child or parent."

The story also quote fellow blogger and commenter here, Triona Guidry, who was not in support of this bill:

"It does not actually open adoption records," said Triona Guidry, whose birth mother will not let Guidry get a copy of her birth certificate. Even under the new law, the best Guidry will get is a birth certificate with her mother's name redacted. "Equal rights apply to everyone. Everyone should have the right to go into that courthouse, pay their $15 and get their birth certificate."

A few key provisions of the law:

• Effective immediately, children and parents involved in adoptions that took place before 1946 can get birth certificates. [Of course, here the birth mothers will be dead; possible siblings might be found.]
• For later cases, Feigenholtz and other state officials will spend the next year-and-a-half notifying birth parents and adoptive children that they need to contact the state and declare whether or not they wish to be found. Notices will go out on Illinois' residents' vehicle renewal stickers and other state documents. After Nov. 15, 2011, people involved in adoption can request birth certificates, and if the other parties involved have filed no objections, the birth certificates will be turned over.
• If a birth parent says no, an adoptive child can ask again in five years and the state will check to see whether the parent has changed her or his mind.

The link below is to a related story from the Sun Times about Feigenholtz:

Torment drove Feigenholtz to find birth mom  

 State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz gets emotional as Governor Pat Quinn signs a new bill allowing adopted adults greater access to their original birth certificates. Feigenholtz is adopted and sponsored the bill in the House. (John H. White/Sun-Times)


State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz was just a girl snooping through the pajama drawer in her mother's dresser when she saw a document with the name of her birth mother.
Years later, as a staffer for Sen. John Cullerton, she remembered that name when Cullerton worked on an adoption bill.


"There was this thing inside of me: It was like a little monster, and sometimes it sleeps, and sometimes it's so loud you can't hear anything else. It's tormenting. It really is tormenting," Feigenholtz said.

Ah yes, the little monster. We birth/first/natural mothers know about the monster too. You can denounce Feigenholtz or thank her, you can hate this bill or applaud it, but it does mean that a great many people will be able to get their birth certificates. Am I torn about this? Yes. But it is what it is. As for birth/first mothers...well, we get nuttin in this country; we signed the papers, remember?  

Just like a coerced confession, we signed away our rights. But every person of any sense will understand that those papers were a gross violation of the natural right for all persons to have life, liberty and the pursuit of justice. We were robbed and the adoptive parents in the professional and middle class, yes, the educated liberals, by and large support this violation of human rights. Because it suits them. Because by and large, they are the adopters. --lorraine
___________________________

Adolescents and teenagers tell their stories about...How It Feels to Be Adopted in Jill Krementz's book of essays and photographs. Young people especially will enjoy this book. My daughter Jane and I are included and were interviewed during my daughter's first trip East to meet me on my home ground and meet my husband. She had already met my family in Dearborn, Michigan.