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Texas Pages

Adoption Reform Texas Style
An Open Letter to Adoption Reform Advocates
February 7, 2005

For years we at TxCARE have represented the most experienced collection of adoption reform advocates in Texas. The result now for 2005 is House Bill HB770, and the companion Senate Bill, SB364. These bills have been born out of a decade of hard fought advocacy on behalf of adoption triad members and their right to equal treatment under the law.

We encourage everyone to study the unique Texas strategy we are following with HB770/SB364, outlined below. Please bring any concerns directly to us if you see potential problems. This is a tedious process. The more vigilance the better. But we must continue the progress! HB770/SB364 appears to be the best chance Texas has had in 32 years for a law to pass that will restore the rights of Texas adult adoptees to their own birth records.

Our major opposition for the past decade in Texas has repeatedly, and apparently credibly, stated that they, as an adoption agency, legally promised lifelong confidentiality to birth parents. With HB770/SB364 we will allow signed, notarized documentation of that promise to birth parents be filed to protect the alleged desire by birth parents for privacy from their birth child. In effect, with that documentation, and the filing of a contact preference form and a current medical history, a veto to the process of releasing the original birth certificate will be allowed.

However, it is doubted that any birth parent can provide a copy of the signed affidavit of relinquishment of parental rights relating to the adopted child that promises anonymity. If anyone knows of the existence of such a document please advise TxCARE immediately and send us a copy, no matter what state it was issued in!

Absent this documentation, every adult adoptee with a Texas adoption will be allowed to have a copy of their original birth certificate.

There are two goals in placing this veto-type boiler plate language in HB770/SB364. First, it will give comfort to those who may have thought that such legally documented and enforceable promises of life-long secrecy from your birth child were usually wanted and consequently made to birth parents during adoption history in Texas. Second, it gives opportunity during the legislative process to emphasize the true reality of these, unimportant at the time and therefore undocumented, phantom promises. This presents a wonderful educational opportunity!

With HB770/SB364 birth parents will have more protection than they have ever had in Texas against an uninvited surprise contact by their birth child. The large majority of adult adoptees who decide to search have always been able to locate their birth parents. Those birth parents had no reliable place to record their desires relating to contact. Now, with HB770/SB364, the public will know more than ever before that the central gathering place is the State Adoption Registry if a search is being planned. Birth parents will know that there is a place they can file a contact preference form that they can be relatively certain that their birth child will receive when he or she decides to search. HB770/SB364 represents progress and increased security for birth parents.

You may go to the Texas Legislature Online at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/ to see the text and follow the progress of both HB770 and SB364. Please write letters to both your Representative and your Senator if you live in Texas. Encourage your Texas relatives to write. Please send TxCARE copies of your letters, especially if you would like them to be part of the adoption reform support archive being built online at www.txcare.org/2005.

We certainly welcome time, money and support from adoption reform advocates nationwide! We thank you for your guidance and support, especially during these crucial 4 months that follow!

Bill Betzen, LMSW Emeritus
TxCARE Board
www.txcare.org

The following story describes a recent amendment to the Texas baby abandonment law that will allow adoption agencies to avoid all identification of birth families. It apparently was sponsored by Gladney; John Richardson, the pediatrician quoted in the article, is a consultant to Gladney and was largely responsible for the original Texas baby abandonment law:

Texas Expands "Baby Moses" Law

FORT WORTH, Aug 28 - Sixteen babies were left to die in Texas last year, some of them abandoned in dumpsters and trash cans. The "Baby Moses" law that allows mothers to drop off newborns safely at fire stations is being expanded. It has become an all too familiar story.

One baby was discarded in a laundry room and another was placed in a plastic bag and dumped outside by a teenage mother, those are just two tragic examples. All of the children in these cases were abandoned despite the "Baby Moses" law that passed in Texas in 1999.

The law allows a parent to drop off a newborn at a fire station. But in September the law is changing. There will be more places to drop of an unwanted baby. Also, before the baby had to be 30 days or younger now it's 60 days or younger.

"It's a win win thing, for the mother, the baby and the adoptive family. It's a real no brainier. I hope we save more lives," said Dr. John Richardson, a pediatrician. The old law required that a parent leave the baby with and an emergency medical technician, basically at a fire station. The new law allows a parent to leave the baby with any medical personnel at a hospital, an emergency clinic or even an adoption agency.

"This is very exciting. We hope this can avoid any dangerous situations where the children are placed in difficult circumstances," said Paige McCoy Smith, with the Gladney Center. "This law will allow a young woman to place the child in a safe environment."

In Fort Worth, childcare advocates are launching a big public relations campaign to let people know where the Safe Baby Sites are located. They will target schools, hospitals and universities. They also want parents to know, if they chose this option they won't be prosecuted.

"No prosecution. Complete anonymity is guaranteed and she can walk away," said Dr. Richardson. The hope is that parents will stop dumping their newborns, instead leaving them in a safe place where someone can take care of them. The expanded "Baby Moses" law goes into effect September 1.

By: Rebecca Lopez

Copyright: 2001 by WFAA-TV Co. All Rights Reserved

Representative Tony Goolsby has filed House Bill 1767 which will give adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates and gives birth mothers a contact preference as to whether or not they want to be contacted and if not, they are required to submit a medical and genetic health history to be given to the adoptee.

We need any of you who live in the district of the members of the Juvenile Justice & Family Issues Committee to please write them and ask that they support House Bill 1767.

The members of the committee are:

Chair: Rep. Toby Goodman - (R) Arlington
Email: toby.g-@house.state.tx.us
Fax: 512-475-1178
Phone: 512-463-0562
District Phone: 817-460-8290

Vice-Chair: Rep. Arthur "Art" Reyna - (D) San Antonio
Email: arthur-@house.state.tx.us
Fax: 512-463-6153
Phone: 512-463-0642
District Phone: 210-681-8683

Members:

Rep. Phil King (R) Weatherford
Email: phil.-@house.state.tx.us
Fax: (need to call and ask for #)
Phone: 512-463-0738
District Phone: 817-596-4796

Rep. Jose Menendez (D) San Antonio
Email: jose.me-@house.state.tx.us
Fax: (need to call and ask for #)
Phone: 512-463-0634

Rep. Geanie Morrison (R) Victoria
Email: geanie.m-@house.state.tx.us
Fax: (ask for fax # and if she uses email)
Phone: 512-463-0456
District Phone: 361-572-0196

Rep. Elliott Naishtat (D) Austin
Email: elliott.-@house.state.tx.us
Fax: 512-463-8022
Phone: 512-463-0668

Rep. Joe Nixon (R) Houston
Email: joe.n-@house.state.tx.us
Fax: (need to call for fax and see if he uses email)
Phone: 512-463-0514
District Phone: 713-785-7373

Rep. Elvira Reyna (R) Mesquite
Email: elvira-@house.state.tx.us
Fax: 512-463-1492 (confirm fax # and does she use email)
Phone: 512-463-0464
District Phone: 972-279-7030

Rep. Dale B. Tillery (D) Dallas
Email: dale.t-@house.state.tx.us
Fax: (call for number and confirm he uses email)
Phone: 512-463-0548
District Phone: 214-324-9010

Legislative Alert in Texas

Below is a committee substitute for the current HB1767. There are only two changes. They were done to make the protections stronger for the birth parent minority not wanting contact. The ability of this bill to better protect the birth parent minority not wanting contact appears to be a major positive factor in HB1767 for many legislators.

One change is that adoptive parents were taken out of the list of those to have access to the original birth certificate under this bill. The second change is that now all who get the OBC will also get any filed contact preference form. That was not true in the old bill. Below is the substitute that will be presented to the Committee. It is a much better bill.

Please do not hesitate to forward this information to other lists. We need everyone we can locate to write their support to their own respective Representatives here in Texas. (Texas Legislature online is at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/ where you can find any local Rep.)

This week three additional Representatives have signed on for HB1767: Rep. Hill and Rep. Fred Brown as joint authors and Rep Farrar as coauthor. Anyone can write to their own Texas Representative to ask that they not only vote for this bill when it gets out of committee, but to also sign on as a coauthor. I am still working on my own Representative.

Below the bill I have again printed the list of JJFI Committee Members who are the first folks we need to contact about voting for this bill.

I have now spent three days in Austin lobbying and I have asked the staff for every committee member about letters they are receiving. Everybody has told me they have received nothing but hundreds of positive letters regarding HB1767. Let's keep that up, especially with letters to the chair, and most especially from folks in his Arlington District. We still have a long way to go to get HB1767 out of committee.

From http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/ with minor changes from substitute

By Goolsby H.B. No. 1767
77R5390 MCK D A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to certain information available to adopted persons.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 192.008, Health and Safety Code, is
1-5 amended by amending Subsection (d) and adding Subsection (f) to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (d) Except as provided by Subsections [Subsection] (e) and
1-8 (f), only the court that granted the adoption may order access to
1-9 an original birth certificate and the filed documents on which a
1-10 supplementary certificate is based.
1-11 (f) The state registrar shall make the original birth
1-12 certificate and the filed documents on which the supplementary
1-13 certificate is based available without a court order to an adopted
1-14 child at least 21 years of age or an adult descendant or surviving
1-15 spouse of a deceased adopted child. Except as provided by another
1-16 law or a court order, no other person may access the original birth
1-17 certificate or the filed documents on which the supplementary
1-18 certificate is based.
1-19 SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 192, Health and Safety Code,
1-20 is amended by adding Section 192.0085 to read as follows:
1-21 Sec. 192.0085. CONTACT PREFERENCE FORM. (a) A birth parent
1-22 who files an updated medical and genetic history may file a contact
1-23 preference form with the state registrar.
1-24 (b) The state registrar shall deliver the medical and
2-1 genetic history report and the contact preference form to the
2-2 adopted child if the adopted child makes any inquiry with the state
2-3 registrar.
2-4 (c) The state registrar shall deliver a copy of the contact
2-5 preference form to each person who receives access to an original
2-6 birth certificate under Section 192.008
2-7 (d) The state registrar may charge the birth parent a
2-8 reasonable fee to cover the costs of complying with this section
2-9 and shall keep statistics on the number of access orders received,
2-10 letters filed, and notifications sent.
2-11 SECTION 3. (a) This Act takes effect January 1, 2002.
2-12 (b) The change in law made by this Act regarding access to
2-13 birth record information applies without regard to the date an
2-14 adoption order is rendered.

House Bill 3063 has been referred to the Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee. Representative Fred Brown is the Author. Please send letters in favor of this bill to the members of the JJFI Committee. The members would rather not receive e-mails and faxes so just jot a quick note that you would like them to support this bill.

For those that are not aware, this bill will allow a court of competent jurisdiction to open the adoption records of an adopted person without the adoptee having to go back to the county in which their adoption was finalized. That means that those counties in which most adoptions occurred will not be overloaded with adoptees asking for their records. This also would mean that any court of competent jurisdiction could sign an order to release the original birth certificate from the Bureau of Vital Statistics.

Texas currently has two proposals before the legislature regarding baby dumping. They are HB 706 and HB 1134.

These bills, taken in tandem, actually remove the duty of adoption agencies to collect records! THIS IS A VERY BAD THING.

Bill 1134 - allows parents to dump babies with agencies:
voluntarily delivered the child to a designated emergency infant care provider, defined as an employee at a licensed child-placing agency; or an employee at a licensed residential child-care provider.

Bill 706 - Removes the requirement to collect records
the provider may not pursue the parent who delivers the child or prevent the parent from leaving. The parent may remain anonymous. The department is not required to conduct a search for the child's relatives, if the dept. does not have information concerning the child's identity...

If passed, these bills will eliminate controversy over future open records. There will be no records to open!

HB 590, an act relating to the adoption of biological siblings. This bill, introduced by the chairman of the House Committee on Juvenile Justice & Family Issues, Rep. Toby Goodman, seeks an opportunity for siblings who are relinquished for adoption to be placed in the same home.

If this law is passed, the state will inform adoptive parents of any subsequently born biological sibling of a child who becomes available for adoption. It provides that the adoptive parents of a child have the right to be considered first for the adoption of a child who is the sibling of the parent's child. It also establishes a registry for parents who are willing to adopt relinquished siblings.

We agree with Rep. Goodman that it would be best for siblings to be raised together in a loving home, if the birth parents are unable, or unwilling to raise them. We would encourage this bill to be broadened to include those children that have been adopted through licensed child-placing agencies.

Information about this bill can be found by visiting the Texas Legislature web site: , and entering HB 590 in the Bill Info Search provided at the bottom of the page. We urge everyone to contact the Juvenile Justice & Family Issues Committee and express your support for this bill. Names and contact information follows. We will update the fax numbers, etc. when we have them - hopefully by tomorrow morning, so please check back for that information.

TxCARE Legislative Committee
Lea Cassidy, Chair
House Committee on Juvenile Justice & Family Issues

Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos of Austin has filed SB 933 which will require that all birth mothers be informed that they can elect to have a 10-day revocation period in which they can change their mind about relinquishing their babies. This is wonderful legislation and is much needed!

Please write the Senators on the Jurisprudence Committee and let them know that you support this bill. If you happen to live in their district, please let them know it. Otherwise, just ask that they support the bill and you might also write to your own senator.

The members of the Texas Senate Jurisprudence Committe are:
Sen. Royce West (D) Dallas, Chair
Sen. David E. Bernsen (D) Beaumont, Vice Chair
Sen. J. E. "Buster" Brown (R) Lake Jackson
Sen. Robert L. Duncan (R) Lubbock
Sen. Rodney Ellis (D) Houston
Sen. Mike Jackson (R) La Porte
Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R) San Antonio

Please address your letters as:

Honorable Royce West
Box 12068
Austin, TX 78711-2068

Dear Senator West:

They all have the same box number and all e-mails go to first.last@senate.state.tx.us.

to Texas State Information Pages.

Graphics for this page
were made by Natalie Rasmussen

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