DELAWARE HOUSE HEARING ON HB 522

Subject: Re: DE House hearing on HB 522
From: cindybh@juno.com (cynthia kathryn bertrand holub)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 11:54:48 EDT

The hearing started by Caulk presenting the bill . He's very nice, very sincere, but he has not an inkling of any civil rights notion here, or any response to possible counter-arguments. I talked to him and asked him about our chances, given that the session ends in a couple of weeks -- he seemed optimistic, although there are many fewer Senate than House sponsors. The legislators' questions to him focused on the agency searching part --someone didn't think the state should set a price, and he said that was not a problem, he'd be happy to change that. Then another (Ulbrich?) started in with the whole bparent privacy thing, saying she had heard from Catholic Charities and an "out-of-state birthmother" who worried about her privacy. Caulk was kind of cute -- when he mentioned that CC had come out against the bill he said he had always supported *their* bills.

Diliberto spoke next and he was great -- he just tossed aside the more abortions argument as not worth considering and said that if it was, as it seemed, a matter of balance, then the balance should be in favor of the right to know. We all clapped for him -- and he says he's not knowledgeable in this area :-)

Then Maier asked if anyone in the audience wanted to speak and I managed to get in first with "I do" and she recognizd me . Oh, yeah, people in the audience had contributed various points at different times, but they were all about the need for medical information and other stuff -- like potential incest! I specifically addressed the abortion issue and the right to privacy with Doe v Sundquist, making sure I was directly speaking to the leg. who had questioned it - she was paying attention.

Dr Sonne came next and said that the need for medical informaion was the least important reason for open records -- we started to hope -- but then he said adoptees needed their records so they could search and heal their wounded psyches. He did not even address the abortion issue, which I had thought would be his major pont.

Then Daul said he would take just a minute. He talked about the great concern he had for the elimination of confidentiality, and said he wanted to make it clear to the legislators that this would affect every adoption that had ever happened in DE. Caulk's adaughter's bgrandmother (got that?) was there (she was the one who had brought up incest -- seems Caulk's adaughter had almost dated her buncle in high school) and she challenged Daul about his agency's wonderful searching record and said he was full of bull. The hearing ended on that note, they voted, and there you are. Don't know when the Senate hearing will be, but it will have to be very soon.

CK

Cynthia Bertrand Holub
Mid-Atlantic Regional Director
Bastard Nation
www.bastards.org

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