ILLINOIS: Letter by Ed Smetana--Don't Discourage Adoption Option, April 21, 2008

(CHICAGO SUBURBAN) DAILY HERALD
April 21, 2008

Letter: Don't Discourage Adoption Option


I feel empathy for all the adopted people who are looking for their roots -- family trees -- and are resentful that their moms and dads did not want ever to be connected to them.

The important thing to remember is, they chose life for you and to countless generations to come as you are Adams and Eves.

Please do not encourage changes to the law or seek remedies in the courts because this will in most cases make adoption not a viable option in the eyes of the baby donors.

This was the case in England. All adoptions were made transparent, offering no privacy to the baby donors, and the result was that the baby donor programs have become almost non-existent. And, in the minds of the would-be donors,abortion has become the only answer.

Please do not enact court cases or laws that will mean the death sentence for your brother, sisters and cousins.

Ed Smetana

Arlington Heights

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ILLIINOIS: Letter by Jane Edwards--Many Birth Mothers Want Children to Know Identity, April 20, 2008

Bloomington Pantagraph
April 20, 2008


Letter: Many birth mothers want children to know identity


Megan Bakaitis who wrote the letter published April 13 (``Oppose proposal about adoptee birth certificates'') is the daughter I surrendered for adoption in Dec., 1966. Megan argues that adoptees should not have the unrestricted right to their original birth certificates.

While Megan is a fine person, I strongly disagree with her views on adoptee access.

I live in Portland, Ore. On Nov. 3, 1998, Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 58 with 57 percent of the vote. This measure allowed adult adoptees to obtain their original birth certificates.

Opponents immediately challenged Ballot Measure 58 in the courts as violating birth mother privacy. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the law and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the decision. The measure became effective May 31, 2000.

While opponents of the measure claimed that birth mothers did not want their children to know their identities, birth mothers said something quite different.

Two days before the election, over 500 birth mothers - including me - placed their names in a full-page ad in Oregon's largest newspaper, the Portland Oregonian, supporting the measure.

When I learned in 1997 that Megan was looking for me, I was terrified, but also overjoyed. Since our reunion, I have felt much more complete. It is indeed true that the truth will set you free.

My experience is not unique. Over 9,000 Oregon adoptees have received their original birth certificates. There have been no reports of birth mothers becoming distressed over being contacted by their child.

I have met birth mothers and birth fathers from all over the country. I have never heard any regret having a reunion - regardless of how the reunion turned out.

Jane Edwards

Portland, Ore.

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ILLINOIS: Letter from Marilyn Strohkirch, April 13, 2008

BLOOMINGTON PANTAGRAPH
April 13, 2008

Letter: Give adoptees access to their birth records

State Rep. Sara Feighenholtz, D-Chicago, an Illinois-born and adopted person, is sponsoring legislation to make birth records available to adopted persons born in Illinois as noted in The Pantagraph (``More open records for adoptees?,'' March 22, Page A1).

Rep. Feighenholtz said, ``Existing Illinois law robs tens of thousands of Illinois adults of the right to know who they are.''

As a longtime adoption advocate and former confidential intermediary for the state of Illinois, I can honestly say most people touched by adoption feel their rights have been violated by the present Illinois law that prevents adoptees from obtaining their original birth records.

Original birth records for Illinois-born adopted persons have been closed since 1947. Our legislators now have the opportunity to change the law and allow persons adopted before 1946 access to their original birth records.

Those adopted after 1946 will have to wait six months to allow biological parents who wish to keep their identity a secret to do so through the Illinois Adoption Registry.

The Illinois Department of Public Health maintains the registry and records indicate only 17 biological parents have filed forms to prevent identity disclosure.

Eight states now allow adult adopted persons to access their birth records.

Illinois has laws to prevent identity theft.

For more than a half century, adoptees in this state have been denied access to their identity in the first place. Passage of House Bill 4623 could end what amounts to ``identity theft'' for individuals who were born and adopted in Illinois.

I urge you to ask your representative to vote ``yes'' for HB 4623. A public meeting about this important adoption reform and open birth records will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at St, John's Lutheran Church, 1617 E. Emerson, Bloomington. For more information, call (309) 820-0230.

Marilyn Strohkirch

Bloomington

The writer is co-founder, Healing Hearts Adoption Support Group.

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ILLINOIS: Letter from Megan Bakaitis--Oppose Proposal about Adoptee Birth Certificates, April 13, 2008

BLOOMINGTON PANTAGRAPH
April 13, 2008

Letter: Oppose proposal about adoptee birth certificates

I am an adult adoptee. About 10 years ago, I made the choice to search for my birth mother and I found her!

I knew nothing about the ``adoption rights'' movement. It was just something I wanted to do for myself.

The reunion with my birth mother was satisfying for me, and we still correspond and visit each other. After we met, I even attempted to obtain my original birth certificate, but was denied.

Since that time, I have been exposed to many, many communications from various groups pushing for legislation that would allow all adoptees the right to obtain their original birth certificates, regardless of the wishes of birth mothers.

At first, the political arguments made a lot of sense to me. However, after much careful study, pondering and prayer, I have decided for myself that I cannot embrace these groups' basic philosophy regarding family.

God has a plan for families. Children should be nurtured in loving homes by a father and a mother who are also husband and wife. ``Redefining kinship,'' as advocated by the some of these groups, is a dangerous thing.

Furthermore, to obtain one's original birth certificate is not a civil or human right.

Because I don't believe in the basic goals of ``adoption rights'' organizations, I cannot and will not support their political agendas, including open records for all adoptees.

Megan Bakaitis

Lexington

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ILLINOIS: Letter from Natalie Jones--Adoption Shock, April 9, 2008

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
April 9, 2008

Letter: Adoption shock

This is in response to "Adoptees look for their identity; Illinois bill would give better records access" (Metro, March 11), and the editorial and letters to the editor that followed it.

What many of adoptees don't understand is that if it were not for the privacy promised their birth mothers, they might not be here. Many women didn't have abortions because they were promised that they could count on secrecy.

I am adopted and cannot think of a good reason to disrupt someone's life. She gave me a life; that's good enough for me. I try to take care of myself and probably have the same chance of being healthy as anyone.

Some of these mothers will not be notified of this; what a shock for them. Rethink this unfair new development.—Natalie Jones

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ILLINOIS: Editorial--Adoptees and Their Records, March 21, 2008

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
March 21, 2008

Editorial: Adoptees and Their Records

A decade ago, a bid to open many adoption-related records for adult adoptees in Illinois failed in the General Assembly. Bombarded by fierce opposition from bar groups and adoption agencies, lawmakers backed off. In effect, they respected the wishes of birth parents who had been granted anonymity when they placed children for adoption.

Now there's a new effort to open one type of record for people who have been adopted.

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) has introduced a bill that would allow adults who were adopted to obtain copies of their original birth certificates. The bill would allow adoptees who were born before Jan. 1, 1946, to get copies of their original birth certificates when the proposed law takes effect. Those born after that date would have to wait until April 1, 2009. That lag period would give each birth parent a chance to file an official document asking to keep his or her identity confidential.

At the moment, adoptees can't get their original birth certificates, which typically bear birth parents' names. When a child is adopted, an amended birth certificate is created, with the adoptive parents' names only.

Since the 1980s, more adoptions have moved toward openness—an ongoing relationship between a child and his or her birth parents, or at least an exchange of information as a child grows. That's a personal choice for biological and adoptive parents to arrange. Adoption agencies typically help them decide what their mutual degree of openness will be.

Parents who relinquish a baby to adoption and choose not to maintain contact essentially strike an agreement with the state and with the adoption agency. The agency and the state say they will honor the birth parents' privacy; the records are sealed.

This bill would break that agreement.

Many adoptees argue that they're the only Americans routinely denied such basic and vital information as their birth certificates. They say they often can't get family health histories. They know nothing about their ancestors.

If there were no other way for an adoptee to get such information, we'd be inclined to support this bill. But there are other ways. Illinois has set out a reasonable path that this page supports for adoptees to find biological parents or other relatives, if those blood relatives want—or with prompting, if they agree—to be found.

First, there's a state registry where adoptees and birth relatives can sign up to find each other. It's run by the Illinois Department of Public Health. As of last December, there were 10,034 people registered, including 6,719 adoptees and 2,391 birth mothers and 366 birth fathers, according to a department spokeswoman. The registry has tallied 618 matches since its inception in 1985.

A second program allows an adoptee to ask a court to appoint a confidential intermediary to try to make contact. These intermediaries are granted access to sealed court records to help them find birth parents or other relatives. Their track record is impressive. They locate a birth parent or other relative about 90 percent of the time.

But here's something to remember: Only about half the time do the birth parents or relatives consent to some contact. Some of that contact is anonymous, with birth parents and adoptees exchanging letters without identifying information. Some of the contact is more open, leading to meetings.

Deciding that original birth certificates should suddenly be open would be a reason for many adoptees to celebrate. But it also would raise the possibility that some birth parents could get an unexpected and unwanted phone call or knock on the door.

Under the proposed law, there would be a six-month general information campaign to let everyone know about the changes in the law. That would allow birth parents a chance to file the official requests to keep their identities private.

In effect, the legislation would shift responsibility for maintaining anonymity from the state to birth parents.

But that hardly guarantees birth parents will hear about the change in law; some will have moved out of state.

If those parents didn't hear about their new responsibility and react, the proposed law would presume their consent to release the birth certificate.

The possibility of a birth parent getting blindsided tips the balance against this bill.

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ILLINOIS: State Lawmakers Present Legislation Targeting Birith Records, Costs of Adoptions, March 20, 2008

JOURNAL GAZETTE/TIMES COURIER
March 20, 2008

State lawmakers present legislation targeting birth records, costs of adoptions
By KARTIKAY MEHROTRA, JG/T-C Springfield Bureau

SPRINGFIELD — About 5,000 children are adopted in Illinois every year, at a cost of approximately $25,000 per adoption.

Once the process is complete, the adopted child is severed from their birth records for life unless they go on a hunt for their biological parents.

“You’re forcing somebody to do something they don’t want to do or aren’t ready to do,” said state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, House sponsor for legislation to make birth records available to adopted people in Illinois.

All of that could change in Illinois if two measures are approved this year. One proposed law would curb the cost of adopting a child. The other would allow adopted individuals the opportunity to freely gain access to their birth certificate.

“The right to one’s own identity is a basic and unalienable human right,” Feigenholtz said. “Existing Illinois law robs tens of thousands of Illinois adults of the right to know who they are.”

The law would nullify legislation approved in 1947, and would allow adoptees born before Jan. 1, 1946 to access to their birth certificate. Feigeholtz says current state law protects the interests of biological parents who wish to maintain secrecy. But her data, courtesy of the Illinois Adoption Registry, declares only 17 biological parents who have filed forms to keep their identities disclosed.

Even so, Feigenholtz says the new law would include a series of safeguards to ensure that birth parents seeking confidentiality may do so.

Birth parents whose children were adopted in 1946 or later will be protected by a six-month waiting-period when they can declare their wishes to remain anonymous. Those parents may also ask that their names be scratched from the original birth certificate upon their son or daughter’s request to view the document.

The legislation passed out of a House committee on adoption reform earlier this month on an 8 to 1 vote. It now heads to the full House for further debate.

“Whether I’m three-months-old or 51-years-old, they can receive the document that has my birth mother’s name on it,” said Feigenholtz, who was adopted as a child.

State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, has proposed a tax break to encourage more adoptions by adoptive parents.

If approved, adopting parents could qualify for a $1,000 state income tax break.

“We don’t want to see these kids in foster homes,” said Luechtefeld. “It’s already terribly expensive and this isn’t a whole lot of money, but it is some sort of deduction to encourage the process.”

Luechtefeld said the discount would be more fruitful if the cash-strapped state wasn’t in dire need for every penny it can get.

“What I didn’t want to do was take a large chunk of revenue of the state’s hands,” he said. The proposal has advanced out of a Senate committee and awaits action in the full Senate.

The Feigenholtz legislation is House Bill 4623.

The Luechtefeld legislation is Senate Bill 2282.

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ILLINOIS: Adoptees look for Their Identity, March 11, 2008

Comments

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
March 11, 2008


Adoptees Look for Their Identity--Illinois bill would give better records access
By Kristen Kridel | Tribune reporter

Former Denver Broncos fullback and adoptee Howard Griffith has spent many holidays surrounded by his wife, children, parents and other family. But he's never been able to shake the feeling that something was missing.

"There's always still a sense of loneliness because you truly don't know who you are, even though you have this support system," Griffith said.

On Monday morning, he stood in support of Democratic state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz of Chicago, who is sponsoring a bill that would give many adoptees at least 21 years old access to their original birth certificates for the first time since Illinois sealed the records in the 1940s.

The bill, which has been assigned to the House Adoption Reform Committee, will be voted on Thursday, said Feigenholtz, herself an adoptee.

"We've been deprived of our history and our identity," she said. "Chapter 1 of everyone else's lives begins with a birth certificate, a document I and everyone behind me are prohibited from having."

The law would allow adoptees born before Jan. 1, 1946, to immediately get copies of their birth certificates. Those adoptees had access to their records until the state sealed them retroactively.

Anyone born after Jan. 1, 1946, will have to wait to retrieve the document until April 1, 2009, giving birth parents the opportunity to request anonymity through the state registry, Feigenholtz said. To have their names removed from the certificate, parents have to pay a $40 fee or fill out a medical questionnaire, said Melisha Mitchell, executive director of an organization called White Oak Foundation that provides post-adoption services.

Advocates of the bill are hoping the birth parents will opt to fill out their medical history, so their children can receive vital information, Mitchell said. If the parents do ask for anonymity, the adoptee can go to the courts five years from that date and initiate a search for updated medical information free of charge.

Of the about 2,000 birth parents registered in the state, only 17 have asked to remain confidential, Feigenholtz said.

Mitchell, a birth mother who chose adoption for her child, said many parents long to know that their child turned out all right.

"By the time our surrendered son and daughter reached adulthood, we just wanted peace of mind," she said.

Feigenholtz has spent a decade championing bills aimed at making it easier for birth parents to reconnect with the adult children for whom they chose adoption. In 1997, she proposed legislation that would have opened all Illinois adoption records if it had passed.

In 1999, she got a bill passed that expanded the state's adoption registry, which allows adoptees and birth parents to document their desire to reunite and helps them find one another.

More recently, Feigenholtz succeeded in revising a law that used to require adoptees have a medical reason to petition courts for information about their parents. Now they can seek the help of a confidential intermediary for any reason.

WGN Radio personality Steve Cochran said supplying birth certificates for adoptees like himself is an issue of fairness.

"It's something you ought to have because everyone else gets it," he said.

----------

kkridel@tribune.com

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ILLINOIS: Lawmakers Work to Get Adult Adoptees Acess to Certificates, march 10, 2008

ABC7-TV,
March 10, 2008

Lawmakers work to get adult adoptees access to certificates

State lawmakers are trying to help adult adoptees in Illinois get copies of their original birth certificates.

Since 1947, the documents have been sealed under state law. And they've only been available to adult adoptees by court order or in cases where they've been matched with a biological relative.

State Representative Sara Feigenholtz is proposing legislation to undo that law and allow adoptees over 21 years old to request non-certified copies of their birth certificates at their discretion.

She said people have the right to their own identities.

"We have been deprived of our history and our identity. We have been deprived of the chapter that everyone else in this state simply gets," said Feigenholtz, also adopted.

Feigenholtz says 200,000 adopted men and woman were born in Illinois.

The legislation will be sent to the House Adoption Reform Committee for consideration.

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ILLINOIS: Grand Opening! Illinois Open

GRAND OPENING

PLEASE FORWARD FREELY

ILLINOIS OPEN
http://www.ilopen.org
obc@ilopen.org

MISSION STATEMENT

Illinois Open advocates the issuing to all Illinois adult adoptees, upon request an unconditionally, a copy of their unaltered original birth certificate.

GOALS

Illinois Open is an informational organization. Its goals are to educate the public about sealed records as well as locate grassroots supporters of equal access to the original birth certificate for all adopted men and women in Illinois.

Currently, the only way adopted adults in Illinois can receive a copy of their original birth certificate is by petitioning the court and showing good cause, a lengthy, costly, and time consuming process.

Illinois Open is asking the State of Illinois to repeal or amend its Adoption Act so that all adopted adults can get their original birth certificate in the same manner as all non-adopted citizens.


We want to hear from you.

Please write to us at:

obc@ilopen.org

Visit our Myspace Page

ILLINOIS: Editorial--Birthrights--Adults who were Adopted Should have Access to Birth Records

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, November 20, 2007

BIRTH RIGHTS

Adults who were adopted should have access to birth records

Two people, both over 21, walk into the county clerk's office and plunk down $13 to order a certified copy of their original birth certificate. Only one is able to obtain that piece of paper, which is so important not just for identification purposes, but to trace their ancestry. The other, who was adopted at birth, will get a revised document showing the names of his adoptive parents.

There is no compelling reason to deny adults their original birth certificates, other than to continue a long tradition of secrecy -- borne of the shame that once was attached to unwed mothers. Those were the days when a pregnant woman often left town and returned after having given the child to 'a good family,' meaning a married couple.

A comprehensive new study released last week for National Adoption Month, provides strong evidence that those myths no longer are valid. At the very least, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute's findings support changing state laws to allow adopted adults to obtain their original birth information.

Illinois, like most states, keeps original birth certificates and most other adoption records sealed, including any genetic problems in the birth parents' family. That information is released only by court order. Only Alaska and Kansas have always allowed adults to see their original birth certificate. Six other states -- Alabama, Deleware, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon and Tennessee -- have re-established adopted adults' rights to direct access to their original birth record.

Resistance to change has been strong, however. Critics say birth parents were assured confidentiality when they gave up their child, and that it's unfair to 'expose' them later on. That promise should expire when that child becomes an adult and entitled to the same rights as other adults. And why not? The Donaldson Institute found that in states that provide direct access to original birth certificates, the biological parents' lives were not ruined by revealing their names, and in fact many welcomed a meeting. Moreover, abortion rates did not rise and adoption rates did not fall

Julie Tye, president of The Cradle adoption agency, said many biological mothers welcome the chance to see their adult child and know they made the right decision in giving him or her a chance for a better life. Each year, the agency acts as a go-between for about 30 birthmother reunions, including one for a mother in her 80's.

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), an adoptee, four years ago sponsored the Illinois law that allows adoption agencies to search adoption birth records for medical information. "There was a time when you could go in and get a birth certificate over the counter, and you should be able to do so again," said Feigenholtz, referring to an earlier era before there were such restrictions. She was reunited with her birth mother in the late 1980's. She plans to introduce a bill early next year that gives all adults access to their birth record. "That's a pretty basic civil right."

Times have changed. Adoption no longer is a hush-hush arrangement a woman makes to avoid the stigma of being an unwed mother. It's time Illinois law changed as well and stopped treating adopted adults like children.

(Paid archives)