Bastard Nation
Action Alert!April 18, 2003 HELP STOP NORTH DAKOTA HB 1035:AN EGREGIOUS AFFRONT TO ADULT ADOPTEES AND THEIR BIRTH PARENTS. Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization vigorously opposes
North Dakota House Bill 1035, which is poised to emerge from a
Conference Committee of House and Senate members that have drafted a
compromise bill following discrepancies between the chambers. After
being handed these scraps from the legislature as part of an adoption
law overhaul, Dakota Heartstrings, an adoption triad group supporting
this bill, calls it "one last chance to make a positive change in the
adoption laws"
Although the desire to improve North Dakota's dismal closed records
laws is understandable, there is nothing positive about this bill. It
is offensive to adoptees and birth parents alike. It contains a
disclosure veto whereby adult adoptees must have written parental
permission before any identifying information is released to them, thus
vesting birth parents with a "right to privacy" or "right to
confidentiality" which in reality does not exist. All disclosure vetoes
are based on the premise that adopted adults are perpetual children who
need birth parent permission in order to access their own birth
certificates.
HB 1035 is oppressive to birth parents as well. According to the
proposed new law, if both genetic parents are located but only one
parent authorizes disclosure of identifying information, he or she must
sign a statement that as the consenting parent, he/she will not
disclose to the receiving party any identifyinginformation about the
objecting parent. In any action in which wrongful disclosure of
identifying information is claimed, there is a disputable presumption
of damages in the amount of $50,000 ( fifty thousand dollars) in
addition to attorney's fees and costs.
Bastard Nation believes that all conditional access legislation is an
affront to the dignity and self-respect of adopted adults and their
birth parents. We also believe that passage of bad legislation in one
state can set a precedent for bad legislation to be passed in others.
We urge adoptee rights supporters everywhere and ESPECIALLY IN NORTH
DAKOTA to unite to defeat this legislation, which could set back
adoptee rights in North Dakota for many years to come. North Dakotas'
open records supporters should work toward passage of new legislation
that would provide adult adoptees with unconditional access to their
own original birth records.
Contact the members of the Conference Committee by e-mail, FAX, and
Phone and urge them NOT to pass HB-1035 in its current form and instead
substitute language that would provide adult adoptees born and adopted
in North Dakota with unconditional access to their original birth
records: Read the full text at http://www.state.nd.us/lr/assembly/58-2003/bill_text/DAFD0500.pdf
Contact InformationRepresentative Duane Dekrey
4323 27th Street SE
Pettibone, ND 58487
Phone: 701-273-4844
E-mail: ddekrey@state.nd.us
Representative Bruce Eckre
1300 North Seventh Street
Wahpeton, ND 58075-3625
Phone: 701-642-3663
E-mail: beckre@state.nd.us
Representative Bette B. Grande
181 Prairiewood Drive
Fargo, ND 58103-4624
Phone: 701-293-1729
E-mail: bgrande@state.nd.us
Senator Carolyn Nelson
1125 College Street
Fargo, ND 58102-3433
Phone: 701-235-5161
E-mail: cnelson@state.nd.us
Senator Thomas L. Trenbeath
P.O. Box 361
Cavalier, ND 58220-0361
Phone: 701-265-3184
E-mail: ttrenbea@state.nd.us
Senator Dick Dever
1416 Eastwood Street
Bismarck, ND 58504-6226
Phone: 701-224-8759
Fax: 701-223-2768
E-mail: ddever@state.nd.us
Call, fax, write today! Your letters and phone calls do make a difference.
Legislative Committee
Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization
http://www.bastards.org/
Copyright 2003 Bastard Nation - Permission is granted to distribute verbatim copies of this document, provided that this notice remain intact. |