astard Nation gave full support to SF621 until late last week when proponents announced that they were willing to accept a reported amendment that would restrict OBC access. Specifically, an amendment that authorizes the government—upon request of a birthparent– to censor the OBC by redacting identifying information from the document before it is released to the adoptee. This is a special right that no third party in Iowa, including parents, otherwise, possess.

STAR has gone dark. Its leaders have been contacted privately and asked publicly where they stand on HB2725.  They have refused to respond. No Facebook, no Twitter, no web page updates. We hope STAR’s members and social media followers get their news elsewhere; otherwise, they are still wondering what happened.

This is legislative reporting at its finest. You want to know why it is so difficult to pass clean bills?  This is what we face daily. Go over to Adoptee Rights Law and read it all. And weep!

Bastard Nation statement on the death of Texas HB2725. Killed for our own good.

The lack of support of HB2725 from the Public Health Committee indicates that a genuine adoptee rights bill cannot succeed this session. This was not the case in recent years, especially in 2015 when a nearly identical bill passed unanimously out of two committees and passed the House on a vote of 138 to 1. In many respects Texas is getting closer to enactment of a genuine adoptee rights bill and the opposition has become more organized in defeating it. It was, in fact, TXARC’s preference this session not to introduce a bill and instead use the time to educate the public and legislators, with a goal to reintroduce a clean bill in 2021. This was a decision prompted by key leaders in the legislature who advised us over the past year to “take a session off.”

According to the Texas legislative website, HB2725 has not been recommended for passage and is not being reported out favorably by the Public Health Committee