Time to Get Ready

It is time to get ready for the next Indiana legislative session. The Adoptee Rights Demonstration included a few state legislators from Indiana. It is time to start contacting them again. I know that it is a painful process. I know that it is a time consuming process but we have to start doing it. It really does not bother me anymore. I can afford to take the time to get those letters written. I am a stay at home mother that home schools. I can get it done. Indiana Open is here to support all adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents who want to achieve this goal.

It just takes a couple hours out of a person's day. You can do it on the weekend. We have to remind them that we are still here and we are still fighting. We have the statistics on our side. We have the data on our side. We can do this. Here are a few examples of what to remind the legislators of:

• In the state of Oregon alone, abortion rates decreased 10-18% when adoptees were allowed access to their original birth certificates. In fact, there was no federal mandates or legislation issued during the first five years after the bill was enacted.
  
• Right to privacy is not the same as right to confidentiality. These are two separate issues. Only time that anyone is guaranteed confidentiality is under HIPAA. A birth certificate is not a medical document. It is a government document that records someone's birth.
• The right to privacy means the right to be left alone. With a contact preference form, a birth parent can disclose their preference to the adoptee without the adoptee being denied their privacy rights under the United States Privacy Act of 1974. The federal government does guarantee that every citizen has a right to access the documents that it has on its citizens. The exception, though not stated in this Act, is adoption. Adoption is a state issue, not a federal issue. The right to privacy also means the right to be free from governmental interference as decided in Roe vs. Wade and Griswold vs. Connecticut.
  
• We are a country of majority, not a country of minority. If a majority of the people want adoptee access, then the country should give its adopted citizens that right. 90% plus of birth parents support their relinquished son's or daughter's right to access their original birth certificate.
  
• The very people opposed to adoptee access are also the ones that were opposed to the sealing of those records.
  
• If a woman relinquishes a child but the child is never adopted, the original birth certificate is never sealed.
• Birth parents are also denied access to the documents that they have signed.

Will you join us in this fight to restore the dignity of adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents?