BASTARD NATION'S ACTION ALERT

This is for all Massachusetts' bastards. They want to separate us. They want to put us into different classes. They want to blacklist certain adoptees. Bastard Nation of which I am a member does not believe in separating adoptees. I believe all adoptees should have access to their records. Folks, plain and simple, we need to fight this kind of legislation. The Massachusett legislature does not get it. Now this type of legislation has drawn the ire of both the Safe Haven groups and the Right to Life groups.

What they don't understand is that abortion and adoption have nothing to do with each other. Women don't go running from adoption because of open records. They do run to abortion because of closed records. It is a basic principle. Could you spend the rest of your life not knowing if your child was alive or dead, if your child was thriving with his/her "forever family", and if your child was happy? Many of you would say a resounding "NO." Yet you expect women to make that choice and be joyful and blessed with that decision. Most women are not happy and joyful about that decision. The so called way adoption was supposed to be is not the way it is. Look at all us adoptees speaking about adoption. Look at all the first mothers speaking out now. Look at all the adoptive parents speaking out against adoption as it used to be. The legislators should be listening to us. Not adoption agencies, their attorneys, and most definitely their lobbyists. The right to lifers and the safe haven groups do not live adoption. We do. These laws affect us. It should be our decision on them.

This article below nails it to the wall. It is written by Marley Greiner. She has put this out for all to read. It is time for us to fight back against these types of laws. Write legislators, newspapers, and others to make our voices heard.

March 22, 2007

If the legislature has its way, some Massachusetts adoptees may soon find themselves on a state-established blacklist that bars them from accessing their own original birth certificates because of the date of their birth. Other adoptees, however, born, during the "correct" timeframes will be allowed access. Blacklist Bills SB 63 and SB 77, passed unanimously on March 21, by the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Disabled Persons create two categories of adoptees. Adoptees born on or before July 14, 1974 and on or after January 1, 2008 will be allowed unconditional access to their original birth certificates now sealed by the state. Adoptees born between those dates, will continue to be governed by current Massachusetts adoption law and forced to get a court order to get their own birth certificates. If they’re lucky.Adoptees and their families should look their legislators in the eye and ask the very important question: what makes one adoptee worthy and another one not? And tell them SB 63 and SB 77 are not acceptable--for anybody. SB 63 and SB 77 turn back the clock. While other states, including neighboring New Hampshire, move forward to restore the right of all adopted persons to access their own birth certificates and other state-held records about themselves, Massachusetts lawmakers have decided to toss thousands of the state's adoptees in a 34 year black hole. These politicians claim that the state needs to "honor" promises it allegedly made to women who relinquished between the black hole dates (including the rest of this year!) that their names would not be revealed to their offspring. These "implied promises" have been debunked by legal scholars, activists, natural mothers, and the documents themselves which offer no promises implied or otherwise.Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee rights group in North America. We advocate for unconditional access to original birth documents for ALL ADOPTED ADULTS. Bastard Nation vigorously opposes SB 63 and AB 77. We are outraged by the discriminatory actions of the Joint Committee. Bastard Nation leaves no adoptees behind. Neither should Massachusetts.