Today I write you again. I beg and implore you to look into these issues. Its time for change. Soon this legislative year will be over. We start again in September. Only this time I hope that you will be further educated. I look forward to meeting you in New Orleans at the state legislators convention. There will be many adoptees, natural parents, adoptive parents protesting for this right. We are having an Adoptee Rights Protest while you are there. I will bring to you changes and ideas that will revitalize and change adoption as a whole.
Sadly I do bring to you the stories of adoptees, natural parents and adoptive parents. It is to us that the state must answer. Please read and learn.
I fight for adoptee access in many states. Sadly I do not think Indiana will ever change. Even though I am an Indiana adoptee, I see my state of Texas changing long before Indiana. I really do not think that the state of Indiana cares about those living adoption in Indiana. I do not mean to incite you but to help you change the laws to make them better to show that adoption needs drastic change.
Bryn Ayre, a graduate student in Indiana, met a young woman with two kids. She got pregnant. He wanted to raise his daughter. He named her Theresa. This woman jumped states. She attempted to place in Indiana but he was on the putative registry. She couldn't place without his consent. Someone connected her to Texas. He too placed himself on the Texas registry. In fact, with a group called Adoption Associates and Jennalee Ryan. They put the mother in contact with a Utah agency, American Center of Choice. They then shipped her to Utah. He also placed himself on their putative father registry. This agency has quite a reputation for violating a parent's right to raise their own child. There are two other fathers fighting this agency currently. They are Cody O'Dea and Joshua Simmerson. This agency has been banned from practice in Illinois by the Attorney General and the Governor of Illinois. Is promoting adoption so important that we forget those who want to parent their own children? Is promoting adoption so important that we forget those living adoption? Is it more important to violate a few parents rights to make sure that the status quo of adoption remains?
You have had two adoptive mothers who have killed their adopted children. One was Melanie Addington who shook and then slammed her adopted infant son against the wall. This is a child who was born in Indiana. He will forever spend the rest of his life in foster care because of the severe brain damage. Another adoptive parent, Rebecca Kyrie, killed her adoptive daughter by doing the same thing. Who are the adoption agencies involved? One agency, Bethany, is responsible for the Rebecca Kyrie adoption. Who is involved in the other adoption? It is also my understanding that there is an adoption agency individual, Jeanenne Smith who ran the Families through International Adoption. She is the one that coordinated the adoption of Masha Allen. A child that was adopted by the pedophile, Matthew Mancuso. This woman was fired before the adoption was finalized. She then started the agency, Reaching out Through International Adoption.
Then even in recent news an adoption facilitator was arrested for theft and fraud. She was sentanced to three years of prison time. How many of these kind stories must continue before the state legislators take action? How many people are hurt before you stand up and make a stand?
Then you have the adoptees who struggle within the system. I have had Senator Robert Meeks tell me in an email that we must protect birthmothers from their unwanted children. Its sad that someone from your legislature would say something so horrible to an adoptee. I am an adoptee who has used the system. I am better off struggling with finding my natural parents on my own. After I used the system that the state provides, I have discovered many things. The agencies and the state twist the laws to suit their own agendas. I have spoken with an Executive director of an adoption agency here in Texas. She admits herself that the adoption industry wants power and control over those living adoption. She tells of stories where the adoption agency takes money from the searcher. Promises contact with the searchee whether it be the adoptee or the natural parent. They never make contact. There have been issues of this in Indiana. The state legislators still turn a blind eye. The law states birth parent. The state, Mary Hinds, and the agencies assume it to mean natural mother. It doesn't state that. Because of this, I am restricted from contacting my father. A man who wanted to raise his own daughter. Just like Bryn Ayre, Cody O'Dea, Joshua Simmerson and many other fathers that I have been in contact with since starting this crucade of mine. I have an older sister from this man. The law again states birth parent. It is also interpreted to mean birth mother.
As an adoptee who has been supposedly refused contact, I fight for adoptees to have equal access to the same document that the non adopted take for granted. In Oregon, they have kept updated information on adoption since changing the laws. Low and behold, adoption has increased. Low and behold, abortion has decreased. In states with full unrestricted adoptee access, 99% of natural parents want contact. In these same states there has been NO bad reverberations. There has also been no cases of unwanted contact. We already have stalking and harassment laws in place.
Surrounding states of Indiana are currently considering legislation allowing adoptee access. It puts the heat on Indiana. Adoption is suppose to be adoptee centric. It is about the agencies and attorneys themselves. Adoptee access is about the same constitutional rights as the non adopted. Indiana is violating the adoptee's right to privacy. Indiana is currently violating the fourth amendment rights of adoptees by withholding their birth certificates on the presumption of harm. If adoption has the capability of creating harm, then the state of Indiana should explain why its in the business of adoption.
Adoption is not protected by right to privacy. No such right exists at this time. If anything, Roe vs. Wade supports our issue. The right to privacy is about the right to be free of government intrusion. This includes states. Adoption is basically a transfer of rights. Some consider it a contract. Adoptees are held bound in this contract that we had no choice. Adoptees born before 1993 are held bound by this agreement based on their birth. Indiana creates a set of second class citizens in their adoptees. Its high time that this is changed. Its up to you to change it. Its up to you to put adoptees on a level playing field.
Sincerely,
Amy K. Burt
aka Amyadoptee
aka Michellin Baby Girl
My resources:
http://indianaopen.blogspot.com/
http://colemanmomsandbabes.blogspot.com/
http://amyadoptee.blogspot.com/
http://www.adultadoptees.org/forum
http://abrazos.org/
http://adopteerights.net/nulliusfilius/
http://www.adoptiontriad.org/
http://www.koreanfocusindiana.com/
http://www.americanadoptioncongress.org/
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~ADOPTION/
http://www.adoptionscams.net/
http://www.origins-usa.org/
http://www.bastards.org/
http://www.babybrokerwatch.com/
http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/index.php
http://www.babybrokerwatch.com/
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