An incredibly important  Supreme Court decision has come out of India on Monday!

I have no real time to write about it all at the moment, so instead, I’m going to pull a variety of quotes out of some of the articles from the past day or so to lay out the outlines of what has just taken place.

The ruling comes in a case brought by Arun Dohle of Against Child Trafficking or ACT (which has long been listed in my links list.  They have been doing critically important human rights work for both adopted people and their families.)

Please note that while the news reports are dismissive of Dohle’s “lineage plea,” what the court actually ruled was that he would still be able to file a suit for seeking relief.

Certainly not a full victory by any means, ( at least not yet,)  but when it comes to establishing the absolute right of Indian adoptees to their documentation, the high court finally gave over full access, rebuffing arguments by the agency/NGO claiming adoptees have no right to such or that their files should be covered by “confidentiality”or “mother’s privacy.”

The judges flatly dismissed such arguments, ruling:

• it is not a national secret that will cause a `maha yudh’, adding that “nothing is private here”
• “Show it to him. He is entitled to it”
• “No national secret is involved in it and the days of privileged documents are over.”

and then handing over the adoption file to him.

So on to the articles themselves.

Quoting from ‘I won’t be satisfied till I find my birth mother’:

An adopted Indian’s 17-year search for his biological parents has resulted in a landmark judgment which will fundamentally change adoption rules of the country.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Arun Dohle, 37, to access his adoption records, which was illegal until now.

Dohle was two months old when a German couple, Michael and Gertrude Dohle, adopted him in 1973 from Kusumbai Motichand Mahila Seva Gram (KMMSG), an adoption centre in Pune. Dohle has been seeking adoption records from the centre since 1993.

“The court’s decision is a landmark one as it establishes that adopted children have a right to know about their biological parents after attaining maturity,” Dohle told DNA.

This  Times of India article, ‘I am not interested in my biological father’ contains many more details:

His habeas corpus plea to have his biological mother produced in court was dismissed by the apex court. But 17 years of legal struggle after he first made the innocuous request to Mahila Seva Gram to be shown his adoption file, his wish was finally granted by the Supreme Court on Monday. He now knows that his mother was a 20-year-old Hindu Maratha, a Std X graduate who resided at the agency during her pregnancy after her “friend’s brother” refused to marry her.

The adoption file was slim, just a few handwritten pages, which the bench headed by Justice Markandey Katju handed over to Dohle’s counsel and him in court to read without hurrying them up. According to the judges, it is not a national secret that will cause a `maha yudh’, adding that “nothing is private here” when the agency tried to prevent showing of the file citing “mother’s privacy”.

Dohle is married and runs an NGO called Against Child Trafficking in Germany, which he says aims at “tackling a money-and-demand-driven market in adoption of children that should be labelled as child-trafficking.” His battle may bring hope to many other children given up for inter-country adoption, who once they grow up, wish to find out the identity of their biological parents.

“The “child record” that the adoption agency maintains may contain information about the biological parents if their identities are known,” said advocate Jamshed Mistry, one of the counsels for Dohle in SC. He added that Monday’s order will now ensure that adoption agencies will maintain authentic records as mandated by law in case of foreign adoption and by the landmark SC verdict of 1984, in the case of Laxmi Kant Pandey.

The particulars of Dohle’s case also raise important questions.

The case, took a controversial turn, when he said that former Maharashtra chief Minister Sharad Pawar’s brother might be linked to his birth. The police report, however, categorically denied any links to the Pawar family. But as Dohle pointed out, Pratap Pawar in October 1973, while recommending the Dohles as adoptive parents had written: I am a member of Association of Friends of Germany and Mr & Mrs Dohle are friends…They stayed with us and selected Arun Swanand as their adopted son.”

From Can’t find your mum through writ, says Supreme Court (Emphasis added by me):

Shooting down the objections raised by advocate Neela Gokhle representing the Kusumbai Motichand Mahila Seva Gram (KMMSG) where Dohle was reportedly “abandoned” by his biological mother, the court said, “No national secret is involved in it and the days of privileged documents are over.”

Advocate Jamshed Mistry who was part of the legal team representing Dohle said: “The court’s direction reaffirms the Supreme Court guidelines as stated in 1984 and also the Hague convention to which India is a signatory.”

However, while dismissing Dohle’s appeal, justices Markandey Katju and TS Thakur said he could file a suit for seeking relief.

Dohle was two months old when a German couple, Michael and Gertrude Dohle, adopted him in 1973. He contested that he was abandoned by his mother and was given in adoption without her consent. He alleged that his adoptive parents were helped by union minister and NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s brother Pratap Pawar.

from SC comes to aid of ‘adopted’ man:

The SC order, granting him access in open court to study the original file, translates into good news for all adopted children who want to access information on their origins, said his lawyers. Dohle’s case is particularly controversial as he claims to be the biological son of the elder brother of union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, Appasaheb. He had produced a DNA report of a German agency, with a sample of hair along with the root from Pawar’s nephew, to indicate that there was 96% likelihood of them “being related.”

Dohle-a slim, bespectacled and soft-spoken man who lives and works in Germany- said he wanted to know if his biological mother was well taken care of and he planned to help her if she was not.

In court, on Monday, when Dohle’s case came up for hearing again with senior counsel Shekhar Naphade arguing that the German couple was helped and “recommended by Pawar’s brother for the adoption,” the bench headed by Justice Markandeya Katju asked the agency why it was unwilling to show the files to Dohle. The judge asked for the files and then handed them to Dohle’s lawyers.

Activist Anjali Kate, who was helping Dohle in the matter along with Mumbai-based lawyer Pradeep Havnur, said the file contained details of the mother, which would now have to be verified.

from SC dismisses German national’s Pawar lineage plea:

The apex court, however, permitted Arun to peruse in the court the records of the NGO Kusumbai Motichand Mahila Seva Gram (KMMSG) to trace out the address given by his biological mother at the time of relinquishing him for adoption by a German couple in 1973.

It rejected the argument of the NGO that Dohle could not peruse the documents as it was a confidential matter.

“Show it to him. He is entitled to it,” the bench said.

Earlier, the Maharashtra government had informed the court that there was no truth in the claim of the man that he was related to the family of Sharad Pawar through one of his brothers and submitted a police report in this regard.

According to Arun, he was born on July 31, 1973, at Sassoon Hospital in Pune. A German couple, Michael and Gertrude Dohle, had adopted him four weeks later from the NGO after his mother reportedly abandoned him. He claimed to be the son of the brother of the Union Minister.

He settled in Germany but later came back to India to locate his biological mother.

The German national said he suspected the institution had kidnapped him as a baby and separated him from his mother.

He submitted that he also suspected that the abandonment theory was a ploy to facilitate his adoption.

Arun, through counsel Senthil Jagadeesan, alleged in the apex court that for the past eight years, he has been rebuffed by the NGO which was refusing to reveal her identity.

The Mumbai police too refused to help him in tracing his biological mother, he alleged.

The Bombay High Court had in 2005 dismissed his plea, following which he appealed in the apex court.

In 2005, the apex court had asked the Maharashtra Director General of Police to place in a sealed cover a report on Arun’s biological connection.

While I thrilled beyond words for all Indian adoptees, tonight, my thoughts are still with Arun Dohle whose real life, and real family lies at the core of this partial victory.

“Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Sunday, August 15, 2010

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: Monday is “Contact Chairman Oliver Day” (Pennsylvania)

Please distribute freely!

HB 1978 is a short, simply written bill to restore the right of all Pennsylvania adoptees to their original birth certificates without restriction. For months, the bill has been stalled, with no hearings, in the House Health and Human Services Committee chaired by Rep. Frank Louis Oliver.

To move this bill into hearings, Pennsylvania Adoptee Rights (PAR) is sponsoring “Contact Chairman Oliver Day”–a day dedicated to asking Rep. Oliver to schedule hearings.

You do not have to be from Pennsylvania to help. Please join activist around the country and contact Rep. Oliver. Messages shouldn’t take more than two sentences.

Call, fax, or email Rep. Oliver now.

Bastard Nation is not affiliated with PAR and HB 1978 is not a Bastard Nation bill. We, however, support the action and endorse the bill as it is currently written, and will continue to do so as long as it remains clean.

If you don’t know about the Magdalene Asylums/Magdalene Laundries you should.

They form a crucial chapter in the flesh and blood consequences of what can and has happened to women and children when the Catholic church gains control over a woman’s reproductive capacity and her life.

Visit  Justice for Magdalenes.

Then the memorial statue in Galway, while you still can. (Also see the latest press release, in pdf form, on the efforts to save it.)

Despite the number of babies sent on into adoptions, other babies graves are still being discovered, see Bethany infants buried in unmarked graves for example, from this past May.

Go see the text of the stones,  read the names of women enslaved by these institutions who died in them.

It’s a chapter all too many would like to tear out of the books, pretending it never happened.

The root of the problem remains, this hatred of women, and efforts to control their reproductive capacity didn’t end with the Laundries.

Another day, another closure due to an ongoing pattern of falsified documents.

Today the U.S. closed off adoptions of children classified as “abandoned” or foundlings in Nepal after finding an ongoing pattern in previous American adoptions of children labeled “abandoned in Nepal, the “documents presented in support of the abandonment of these children in Nepal have been found to be unreliable and circumstances of alleged abandonment cannot be verified because of obstacle in the investigation of individual cases.”

Nepal is just one of several countries Americans have turned to due to the relative ease with which they have been able to gain access to children. As was noted in a MAy 2009 Slate article, The Orphan Trade: A look at families affected by corrupt international adoptions, their interest has had everything to do with the relatively shall we say, “lax” legal climate in Nepalese adoptions.

When one country’s adoptions are closed down to regulate or stop the trafficking, the adoption industry moves to the next “hot” and under-regulated country. (For Americans, these are currently Ethiopia and, to a lesser degree, Nepal.)

The joint statement on the Suspension can be found here. It really leads to questions of why only suspend the adoptions of those children deemed “abandoned” in light of this mess.

The Department of State’s recent interactions with the Government of Nepal and its efforts to review and investigate numerous abandonment cases, including field visits to orphanages and police departments, have demonstrated that documents presented to describe and “prove” the abandonment of children in Nepal are unreliable. Civil documents, such as the children’s birth certificates often include data that has been changed or fabricated. Investigations of children reported to be found abandoned are routinely hindered by the unavailability of officials named in reports of abandonment. Police and orphanage officials often refuse to cooperate with consular officers’ efforts to confirm information by comparing it with official police and orphanage records. In one case, the birth parents were actively searching for a child who had been matched with an American family for adoption. Because the Department of State has concluded that the documentation presented for children reported abandoned in Nepal is unreliable and the general situation of non-cooperation with and even active hindrance of investigations, the U.S. Government can no longer reasonably determine whether a child documented as abandoned qualifies as an orphan. Without reliable documentation, it is not possible for the United States government to process an orphan petition to completion.

The U.S. State Department Alert of the Suspension can be found here, and its Nepal adoptions page has a (now out of date) backgrounder including recent  adoption statistics.

A few highlights from the Alert:

Q. Why is the United States government suspending adoptions from Nepal

A.  The Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have decided to suspend processing of new adoption cases from Nepal that involve children who are claimed to have been found abandoned, because documents presented in support of the abandonment of these children in Nepal have been found to be unreliable and circumstances of alleged abandonment cannot be verified because of obstacle in the investigation of individual cases.

Q:  Adoptive parents have received immigrant visas for their Nepali children from the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu as recently as a few weeks ago.  What has changed since then?

A.  A review of recently processed cases established a disturbing pattern indicating that available documentation cannot be relied upon to make determinations that a child reported abandoned qualifies as an orphan under U.S. immigration law.

Q:  Does the suspension apply to all cases or only to cases in which a child was allegedly found abandoned?

A.  The suspension applies only to cases where a child is alleged to have been found abandoned.

Q.  When is the suspension going into effect?

A.  The suspension is effective as of August 6, 2010, for all new adoption cases involving children from Nepal who have been reported abandoned.

and

Q.  Based on what authority is the U.S. Government suspending adoptions from Nepal?

A.  The Department of State has concluded that the documentation presented for children reported abandoned in Nepal is unreliable.  Without reliable documentation, such children cannot meet the definition of orphan under U.S. immigration law.  Based on this determination and obstacles in the investigation process the U.S. Government has suspended the processing of new adoption cases that involve children who are reported abandoned.

Q.  What evidence does the U.S. Government have to support the suspension?

A.  The Department of State’s ongoing interactions with the Government of Nepal and the review of numerous cases, including field visits to orphanages and police stations, led them to conclude that information regarding how children arrive at orphanages is consistently inadequate and that documents presented to establish that a child was found abandoned are unreliable.  Investigations of abandonment cases have been hampered by the unavailability of officials involved in reports of abandonment, and police and orphanage officials’ refusals to allow consular officers access to police and orphanage records.

Naturally, the American “solution” to the problem is to encourage Nepal to sign the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption.

Q.  Has the U.S. Government made any effort to address the problems with the Government of Nepal?

A.  The U.S. Government, in cooperation with other countries that are active in intercountry adoptions, has consistently encouraged the Government of Nepal to ratify and implement the Hague Adoption Convention.  Nepal is a signatory to the Convention.  We have also urged the Government of Nepal to implement the recommendations made by the Hague Permanent Bureau Intercountry Technical Assistance Program (ICATAP) as a first step toward fulfilling its commitment as a signatory to the Convention.  We believe that the Hague Adoption Convention incorporates the best practices in intercountry adoption, which are intended to protect the rights of the children and the families involved in intercountry adoption.

Bastard Nation (among others) expressed concerns back before the treaty was enacted, pointed out a few of its many fatal flaws.

Once it was enacted, the U.S. has pushed it as the end all “best practices” standard that it believes all countries should sign on to.

Yet clearly, the evidence continues to mount, Hague signatory countries can be just as prone to abuses as non-signatory nations.

Roelie Post has shown in her important piece, “The Perverse Effects of the Hague Adoption Convention” and as I have been documenting here for some time now, (specifically, be sure to see my post, How’s that Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption workin’ out for you then?) that the Convention, far from any sort of a “fix” merely maintains the ongoing brokenness, while giving it a polite cover to hide under.

Simply put, the US and other countries are playing bully with a big stick, demanding other countries sign on to the Hague as a means by which to keep up appearances of “best practices” despite the clear failures of the treaty to actually prevent the abuses it was allegedly created to rectify. All of which has more to do with proving soothing reassurances to would-be-adoptive clients than any actual form of child protection or genuine family preservation.

Those would-be-adopters with adoptions “in the pipeline” should not be characterized as having been ‘taken off guard’ by this latest alert, as the American State Department had previously issued a broader statement this past March about the ongoing falsification of paperwork on adoptions from Nepal. Going ahead with an adoption at that point should have put couples and families on notice.

Note that in the March 4th State Department Alert the concerns were not narrowed to children deemed “abandoned.” It was a full on waving off of ALL adoptions from Nepal:

The U.S. Department of State strongly discourages prospective adoptive parents from choosing Nepal as a country from which to adopt due to grave concerns about the reliability of Nepal’s adoption system and the accuracy of the information in children’s official files.

In May, in another Alert, the State Department spoke even more frankly about the situation (bold in the original):

The U.S. Department of State strongly discourages prospective adoptive parents from choosing adoption in Nepal because of grave concerns about the reliability of Nepal’s adoption system and the accuracy of the information in children’s official files.  The Department also strongly discourages adoption service providers from accepting new applications for adoption from Nepal until reforms are made, and asks them to be vigilant about possible unethical or illegal activities under the current adoption system.

As to what may have changed since May 26th, causing the US to only close adoptions of kids deemed “Abandoned” instead of a full closure of all adoptions from the country, one can only $peculate.

The May alert is very clear about the situation, at least one child had been presented as an “orphan” for adoption, even as their parents were looking for their missing child.

Although the U.S. Embassy in Nepal has only seen a handful of adoption cases since the new Terms and Conditions went into effect, we share many of the concerns outlined in the Hague report.  As a case in point, in one of the first cases processed by the Government of Nepal after the revision of the Terms and Conditions, the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu found that the adopted child was not a true orphan and that the birth parents were actively searching for the child.

Those of us who care about the children and families of Nepal are left to the obvious question, in light of such ongoing patterns of behaviour, does this latest suspension go anywhere near far enough?

Or does it merely continue to enable the people participating in these criminal practices to continue on, after just readjusting or refocusing their efforts?

“Americans for African Adoptions”, widely credited as the first agency to facilitate adoptions from Ethiopia, sits squarely at the center of a latest round of  lawsuits in relation to yet another Ugandan adoption scandal.

Uganda has an ongoing history of adoption corruption, even as the number of kids being imported to the US continues to rise, see Uganda orphans on sale abroad for example. Also see the U.S. State Department notice on Uganda.

Whether the agency was an active participant in the scam or merely cluelessly naive and negligent in light of falsified photos, forged documents, and the collection of large sums of money being handed over remains to be seen.

Earlier this month we were treated to yet another round of articles pertaining to this latest mess.

Take SD couple hope courts will help in adoption scam for example. As usual, the article focuses upon the would-be-adoptive couples and approaches these crimes from a consumer protection model.

Cori and Chris Schmaus said they contracted with an Indianapolis company, Americans For African Adoptions, in early 2008 to adopt two Ugandan children whose mother supposedly gave them up after giving birth to them as part of quintuplets.

The Schmauses received photos, birth records and letters about the children, named Sowali and Fatina Bangi. Having paid $11,500 in initial fees, the couple began sending the agency $400 a month for the children’s care.

Each month, they were assured the adoption paperwork was near completion. It wasn’t. The Schmauses said there never was any legitimate paperwork.

Last October, they found out from a New Mexico couple trying to adopt the other two surviving quints that the Bangi children had lived with their mother since birth. The New Mexico couple flew to Kampala, Uganda, met the mother and learned that she never had agreed to give up her children.

Since then, the Schmauses learned that a Ugandan named Joseph Kagimu reportedly staged photos, forged documents and collected money for dozens of children such as the Bangis, then used the information to collect money from unsuspecting Western parents through the Indianapolis agency.

As of last October, the Schmauses had paid $16,800 to Americans for African Adoptions. Recently, they sued the agency in Minnehaha County, alleging that its director, Cheryl Carter-Shotts, was negligent because she failed to catch on to the scheme. A handful of others, including the New Mexico couple and another in Michigan, have filed or plan to file similar lawsuits as well.

Carter-Shotts claims Kagimu scammed her as well as the families.

You’d think the would-be-adopters might have caught on themselves at the demand for $400 a month for the care of two children in Uganda (a fortune by local standards) but, no they forked over the funds, assuming this was just the cost of doing adoption business in Uganda, and still thinking they were getting a good deal compared to what they might have been asked to pay in other countries.

Would-be-adopters continue to bargain hunt and African children are often priced lower than their  highly prized white peers. The Schmauses felt they were still getting two for the price of less than one kid from another country.

The Schmauses always had wanted to adopt. Cori Schmaus’ family had adopted kids, and Chris Schmaus had worked with foster children at McCrossan Boys Ranch.

After hearing about Africa from missionaries at their Sioux Falls church, they decided to try for an international adoption. But international adoptions can be expensive. The average cost to adopt one child from most agencies is more than $20,000, Cori Schmaus said.

Still, when she came across Americans for African Adoptions and spoke with Carter-Shotts about the smaller upfront costs, she was sold. Carter-Shotts has a strong reputation. Her agency, founded in 1986, is widely credited as the first to facilitate adoptions from Ethiopia.

According to an Indiana court records search, the agency never has been successfully sued.

When the New Mexican would-be-adoptive couple met the mother of the children and learned she had never consented to relinquishing her children at all,  the full reality of the scam came to light.

These couples were all paying money to Americans for African Adoptions for kids that were never available for adoption in the first place.

As so often appears in articles like these, the would-be-adopters bemoan having paid out the cash, but not gotten the ordered products, the kids. The utilize all the usual framing of how these were to their minds “their” kids, and how they are now heartbroken over how “their kids” never came “home” to them.

“The most upsetting part for me was that I was emotionally attached to these children,” Chris Schmaus said. “These were our children. It was like losing a child when we found out what was going on over there.”

I’ve written before at length about how disingenuous these attempts to characterize children  marketed to prospective adoptive couples as “their children” are to their core.

Wanna-be-adopters are all too often simply incapable of getting their heads around the fact that other peoples’ kids are NOT THEIRS.

That they have  no LEGAL basis upon which to even think of someone else’s kids as their own at this stage in the game.

Just because one is sending $400 a month off into the unknown, that does not entitle anyone to any given child, AND that money may or may not be spent on anything they would even remotely approve of, let alone caring for a specific individual child.

Further, reading many agencies contracts makes it clear enough, they do not guarantee a child (any child) and usually funds given are explicitly explained to be non-refundable.

Yet each and every year, couples continue to sign those contracts, continue to get out their checkbooks, month after month for years on end, and then find themselves in courtrooms, angry and feeling betrayed wanting “their” money back. These couples continue to feel the circumstances they find themselves in are somehow incredibly exceptional rather than merely the latest chapter in an ongoing saga that has played out across decades all over the world.

Far from being “special” in being defrauded of thousands of dollars, they are simply added to the pile, another snapshot, another statistic.

The world of cash and adoption is an unregulated black hole.

The bottom line remains as always, “caveat emptor” or “let the buyer beware”.

Would-be-adopters feel all kinds of emotional investment, that is precisely what scammers of all stripes count on.

They back that emotional investment up with financial investments, sometimes taking out second mortgages or loans to raise the funds. Some (stupidly) even put their adoptions on credit cards with double digit interest rates.

The industry itself certainly knows a thing or two about the desperation and “Give-me-children,-or-else-I-die” frenzy adoptive couples work themselves up into as well as how the ongoing threat of lawsuits hangs in their air over their industry.

I’ve sat in the National Council for Adoption’s (an industry lobby’s) annual conference listening to what it sounds like from the agency end. The constant fear of lawsuits is as close as the conference exhibits or the program book with marketing materials for agency insurance  on through to the speakers at the podiums.

Everyone knows once you start paying into the notion of a specific child, the emotional commitment goes off the charts.

Those who would chose to take advantage of that emotional and financial commitment enter into a perfect symbiosis with desperate couples, pushing their buttons and prying the money out of them.

As I wrote earlier in my post Orson Mozes and the perfect symbiosis, speaking to Mozes and the couples he scammed,

Sadly, a perfect symbiosis has formed between the desperate infertile and those who view their desperation as an opportunity to expand their personal fortunes.

As the various would-be-adoptive couples compared notes with one another and made trips to Uganda the scam became more and more apparent.

More than merely wanting  justice, the couples want refunds (perhaps so they can try another stab at adopting with yet another agency.) But what they, like may who pay into these scams fail to understand is that the money is apparently  long gone.

The Guests and Schmauses said they haven’t been repaid the fees they sent to the agency. Carter-Shotts insisted she has paid back the Guests in part but can’t refund all the money and that some initial fees were understood to be non-refundable. Besides, she said, the fraud destroyed her business.

“Joseph took all the money. We don’t have any income coming in,” she said.

and

Guest doubts he’ll see a refund, either, suspecting Carter-Shotts used the money to pay for day-to-day operations.

None of which is any surprise to those of us who have seen it all hundreds of times over.

The problem remains, when it comes to adoption, (with apologies to P.T. Barnum) there’s a wanna-be-adopter sucker born every minute and no matter how “reputable” the agency is portrayed as, there really are no guarantees nor protections.

Sad, yet simple facts more and more would-be-adopters are learning only long after the cash is long gone, years later, in courtrooms.

Many people assume that the intentional stripping of parental rights for Indigenous peoples ended with the closure of the American and Canadian “Indian Residential Schools” or with the Indian Child Welfare Act (or ICWA, here in the States back in 1978,)   or even by the signing of Public Law 110-351, (link opens a pdf) which offered the potential of federal support for tribal foster care programs and kinship care across the country, tragically, nothing could be further from the truth.

First Nations children are still being removed from their families and tribal contexts and put up for adoption, and are still represented in disproportionate rates in both American and Canadian foster systems and pools of children made available to adoption.

Over the past 7 years, organizations in Iowa and Nebraska have held an annual event a, “Memorial March to Honor Our Lost Children” to draw attention to this ongoing injustice.

This 2008 joint press release (link opens a PDF), for example, lays out the heart of the matter, and speaks a truth heard over and over from any number of parents, tribes, and organizations around the world who have lost their children to adoption. (Emphasis added.)

“The mantra for this march for the last six years has been: ‘when our children grow old, they must know that we fought for them,’” said Frank LaMere, a co-organizer of the rally and Director of the Four Directions Community Center in Sioux City. “As a community, it is important that we come together to seek change for our families and that we continue to make our voices heard, year after year, until that change is fully realized.”

Sioux City Journal photo by Tim Hynds

Pictures from the 2009 march can be found here.

This past week Indian Country Today published another article about the ongoing battle in Iowa, “Fighting for the children: Iowa Native leaders protest child welfare practices.”

Native American children swept up in the Iowa child welfare system face perils ranging from loss of culture to death, according to Vicky Apala-Cuevas, Oglala Lakota, a member of the Iowa Commission on Native American Affairs.

The commission, a division of the state’s department of human rights, recently met with the state’s attorney general about several issues, including the disproportionately high rate at which Indian children are taken from their parents and doled out to non-Native foster and adoptive families.

The problem occurs throughout Iowa, but the disparities are worst in the county that includes Sioux City, according to another meeting attendee, Frank LaMere, Winnebago, director of the Four Directions Community Center, a local advocacy group.

“In Woodbury County, these policies have ravaged the Native community. Indian families have been torn apart, thanks to collusion among attorneys, adoption agencies, and others. Their actions are sinister at best, criminal at worst.”

Ultimately, no matter what laws sit on the books, the ongoing removal of children remains a constant.

Apala-Cuevas was less sanguine. “The attorney general said he was on our side but that there was not a great deal he could do at this time. Apparently the Iowa and federal Indian Child Welfare Act laws have no teeth. I was very disappointed. There are penalties for illegal parking, but nothing when it comes to separating Indian children from their families. “Our children are not up for grabs.”

The efforts to circumvent and outright undermine the laws appears intentional, calculated, and systematic, involving adoption agencies, facilitators, attorneys and Judges, not in the least bit dissimilar to how agencies ship pregnant women to “adoption friendly” states like Utah to give birth.

Several Indian youngsters have died in foster care in recent years, with little notice in the media or among the public at large, said LaMere. In contrast, he said, the state “came unglued” in an equally tragic situation, when a white toddler was killed in a manner that social services agencies should have been able to prevent.

A pattern that an Iowa newspaper, the Quad-City Times, uncovered in a multi-article investigative report – with adoption attorneys shuttling pregnant women and then their newborns among several states to cover unethical and illegal practices – occurs within the state of Iowa as well, said LaMere.

“It appears that Native kids are moved to rural counties, where the federal and state ICWA laws are not understood or perhaps not known. Judges in those places can be persuaded to hand over our children to adoptive or foster parents. That’s not all, though. Unscrupulous attorneys and officials find even more ways to do an end-run around Iowa’s department of human services, which is on our side. We need an investigation of these practices.”

Indian children fall prey to the system for various reasons, according to Apala-Cuevas. For one, non-Native people involved in their cases may not understand the extended family and larger tribal community to which an Indian child belongs, or may choose to ignore these relationships.

Money plays a part as well. Tens of thousands of dollars in fees may be at stake for attorneys and other facilitators when an adoption occurs, according to the Quad-City Times report. Native children appear to be especially prized by prospective parents, increasing the likelihood they’ll be snapped up by a corrupt adoption agency or attorney, said Apala-Cuevas.

Organizing within the communities has been ongoing.

Four Directions Community Center has held gatherings for survivors, including hours of testimony from children who had been reunited with their birth families, said Apala-Cuevas. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.”

On Aug. 16 and 17, the organization will hold public hearings on the issue. “We’ll talk about ICWA and the way it’s ignored in Iowa, we’ll discuss the possibility of strengthening our state law legislatively, and much more,” LaMere said. “Attorneys general in other states also need to know this is a problem. We have to protect our children, here and across the country.”

On Nov. 24, the center will hold its eighth memorial march to bring attention to the issue.

For my part, I hope to see more in the adoptee, Parents, and Bastard communities educating themselves, spending some time listening, in order to gain at least some understanding of both the history and the ongoing work that must be done to put an end to these crimes. It is long past time we add our voices to those demanding an end to such abuses.

Perhaps more importantly still, would-be-adopters need to stop coveting, fetishizing, and buying Indigenous children, (same could be said for any targeted population of kids, for that matter.)  Market demand remains the underlying driving engine.

So to list a few resources, The First Nations Orphan Association could be one of many starting points, the blog AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES – Lost Children, Lost Ones, Lost Birds is another, as is Trace A. DeMeyer’s important book “One Small Sacrifice: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects”

I’ve blogged several pieces on these topics (barely scratching the surface) as well, please see:

Adoption as a tool of cultural genocide, the “child grabs” Canadian First Nations peoples have endured, my main history and theory post on the subject

and

“A life filled with scars,” the lasting legacy of the Indian Adoption Program about a previous article in Indian Country Today that focused on the life story of Susan Harness, an American Indian/First Nations adoptee placed into a white family by way of the Indian Adoption Program (or IAP) and the difficulties she has had to face as a result of such.

(A continuation of my parody from part 1, about the adoption related aftermath of the worst earthquakes to strike Maryland in 252 years.)

<sarcasm> <parody>

Day 7

As the first week after the quakes came to a close, America’s most important disaster relief workers, adoption agencies, shifted into high gear.

80 young survivors were loaded onto a plane bound for Philadelphia. There, they were united with their forever families for the first time.

The July 16th earthquakes devastated Maryland and also disrupted thousands of adoptions that were in process.  Eighty of these in-process adoptions will be closer to completion as the “MD 80″ join their new families in Pennsylvania. Of the 80 children, 58 came to Pennsylvania through Bethany Christian Services, the nation’s largest adoption agency.

The children are beneficiaries of a swift humanitarian response spurred by the July 16 earthquakes that devastated the state.

“”If the earthquake hadn’t happened, we would never have him so soon,” said one of the waiting adoptive parents. “Thank God for earthquakes!”

Last week, Washington announced an emergency plan to expedite adoptions from Maryland that were in the pipeline before the earthquake struck. Officials had estimated that between 700 and 1,000 Maryland orphans would benefit from the so-called “Humanitarian adoption policy” announced by Department of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano. But, “we keep finding more,” says Whitney Reitz, a senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, one of several government agencies that have gotten involved in the domestic effort.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a press release reassuring Americans that the “DHS is always prepared to step in when matters of adoption are concerned, children are our most important natural resource and among our highest priorities when it comes to foreign trade policies.”

Adoption agencies report a surge of interest. “We have had more than 1,000 families contact us to adopt in the last few days,” said Marc Andreas, marketing vice president of Bethany Christian Services of Grand Rapids, Mich.

(see Secretary Napolitano Announces Humanitarian Parole Policy for Certain Haitian Orphans Fact Sheet, Eighty Haitian Orphans Unite with Adoptive Families at Miami Hotel and U.S. Speeds Up Adoption Process, and Orphans Arrive.)

Day 8

The online outpouring of concern and support for the Maryland victims of the quake continues to grow with new facebook groups like  Support 2010 DC Earthquake Victims and I was alive for the 2010 baby earthquake in DC/Maryland.

Messages of support and the voices of those lucky enough to have survived fill the comments.

“The usual crowd this morning at Whole Foods but you could feel the tension in the air at the sushi counter. Clearly our world has changed and Flyover DC will never feel safe again.”

“The biggest concern I have is that once the media stops covering the event, the area and its victims will be forgotten and left to fend for themselves…..”

Desperately needed relief supplies are being sent from all over.

“This just in…our freinds in Bar Harbor Maine are sending lobsters….god bless them.”

And this plea, which included the now famous photograph seen around the world that has come to epitomize the shattered landscape of the Maryland suburbs.

“Please help! We are still trying to recover and rebuild from this terrible situation.”

But most of all, people’s thoughts were filled with concerns for the youngest victims.

“The children! What about the CHILDREN?!? Oh, won’t someone PLEASE think about the CHILDREN?!?!?!”

Day 9

Fortunately, some most certainly were thinking of the children, and how best to evacuate them from the danger zone.

Emergency flights brought supplies in and took children out.

Maryland residents protested, “But these kids have living relatives, they are not orphans!”

Fortunately, their cries were ignored.

But of all the people who thought of the children, one in particular stood out from the rest.

God placed it upon Laura Silsby’s heart to once again, gather her teams and make a plan to rescue Maryland’s littlest angels.

Fresh on the heels of her mission to Haiti, she quickly reassembled her missionary teams.

Within days of the quake, a team of missionaries from Texas set to work on an abandoned Howard Johnsons <yeah, I know the picture is from Dayton Ohio, it’s a work of parody, roll with it>  just over the Pennsylvania border. They set about beginning the process of retrofitting it to serve as an orphanage and retreat where would-be-adoptive parents could come and swim, eat, and relax with their Maryland orphans.

Meanwhile, Silsby herself and her reassembled team with members from Idaho, Texas and Kansas rented a church bus and crossed the border into the Maryland disaster zone.

After first attempting to collect children from various daycare centers with little to no success, the team turned to more reliable avenues.  After several hours spent collecting abandoned children from shopping carts in grocery stores,  the team turned to Rockville area “crisis pregnancy centers.” Sadly the Rockville Pregnancy Center had no fresh babies to offer, but they urged the Sislby team to get in touch with local area Catholic churches and Project Gabriel/Gabriel Network.

Saint Peter’s in Olney said they had no orphans to spare, but that the Silby team and their less than half full bus could at least spend the night in the parking lot.

(See part 1 for details on grocery cart “abanonments“, The 10 arrested Christian Scavengers had an adoption centered “mission” for the kids they were caught trying to remove illegally, the raw unvarnished audacity of of the (missionary) adoption mindset, Laura Silsby’s pipedreams of a future in the child containment industry, The 73 Haitian kids deserve genuine justice, not a premature release of the scavengers, Central Valley Baptist Church used its tax status for donations for Laura Silsby’s New Life mission, Haiti- The 33 New Life missionaries collected kids to be reunited with their families,  The 3 additional American members (on the Dominican Republic side of the border) of the 10 arrested American missionary scavengers’ team, & PersonalShopper.com CEO arrested while returning from child shopping trip to Port-au-Prince- by guest blogger Mike Doughney)

Day 10

The next morning, after collecting 16 kids from grocery carts in the Whole Foods in Bethesda, the team felt ready to return to Pennsylvania with their first full busload of orphans.

As they drove up Rockville Pike some of the children began to cry, yelling that they wanted their parents and that they wanted off the bus.

Reaching the construction zone near Randolph Rd, a police officer stopped the bus and boarded it. Many of the kids demanded to be returned to their parents.

The officer sternly reprimanded the missionaries and unloaded the kids off the bus.

(See Thwarted by a police officer in an earlier attempt 3 days before their arrests to export 40 *Other* kids- more on Silsby and the Scavengers)

Day 11

Her initial attempt having failed, Laura Silsby and her team decided to try again, this time in an area not as close to the quake epicenter, and not as prosperous.

The bus pulled into Baltimore and parked near the inner harbor. The missionary team fanned out, each with an armload of full color fliers promising kids that went with the missionaries would receive a “better life”, an education, that the kids would be able to swim in the pool and that the parents could come visit anytime they liked.

After talking to various parents  who were tourists at the National Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center, and even the carousel, they were still coming up empty.

Silsby knew that to fulfill God’s plan for the orphans of the great Maryland earthquakes, she was going to have to get creative in her approach.

One of the parents at the inner harbor witnessed her saying something to her team about “Going off to go find a grocery store in a black neighborhood, it’s not like they can afford to keep those kids. They won’t miss ‘em so much. Besides, adopters will still pay full price.”

That was the last anyone is willing to admit to having seen or heard from her or her team.

(See Haiti- New Charge brought against Laura Silsby, “organization of irregular trips”)

Day 12

The next morning, the church bus was found in Broadway East, a burned out shell. No sign of Laura Silsby or the missionaries, but a single sign was left hanging on a parking meter near the bus. It read:

Bawl’mer ain’t Haiti, Bitch.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, III placed a red pushpin into a Batlimore map at the site of the bus arson.

“It’s a terrible thing,” he said, shaking his head, and went on to cite the city’s record for the first four months of 2010 showed improvement. “Violent crime in Baltimore is on the decline for the third year in a row,” he bragged.

Meanwhile Sislby’s repair crew back in Pennsylvania packed rapidly and fled the decrepit hotel.

Day 13

Various National adoption agencies began to rethink their Maryland orphan strategy in the wake of the martyred missionaries.

In a  joint press statement from 13 adoption agencies, the crumbling situation was decried as too hazardous for adoption releif agencies to enter.  “Maryland is out of control, it has devolved into chaos and violence in the aftermath of the quake.”

The thirteen agencies have pledged to redouble their child saving efforts in other, less hazardous parts of the world.

Holt International was last seen working up a plan for Papua New Guinea, trying to get around the six month residency requirement, saying “Ethiopia is eventually going to run dry. We have to think about where international adoptions are going to come from next. We’re always keeping an eye out for places we can achieve relaxed restrictions and quick uncomplicated placements. The very existence of our industry is at stake!”

(See From Ethiopia… to your home)

</sarcasm> </parody>

Again,  I’m not genuinely comparing Maryland’s bump in the predawn hours to the ongoing catastrophe in Haiti, I’m merely making a point about the arbitrary nature of who gets declared an orphan and the absurd lengths the industry and would-be-adopters go to in the aftermath of natural disasters and how such is viewed as normative and all right, if not “baby saving”. I’m merely re-contextualizing, and pointing out other potential consequences in other situations for the sake of parody in hopes that maybe at least some people will stop to think.

Laura Silsby of course, continues on living out whatever is left of her sorry life between her debts, divorce, and Haitian ‘adventure’ unharmed.

<sarcasm> <parody>

Day 1

I am fortunate to count myself among the living after this morning’s early morning earthquakes rocked the Maryland region.

The initial 3.6 quake, followed soon thereafter by the 2.0 that devastated Germantown, Maryland, hit just after 5 this morning.

While other parts of the country may dismiss these as “small,” the 3.6 was the highest magnitude quake ever scientifically recorded in Maryland.

Never before have we as a state experienced such a catastrophic earthquake event, in scientifically recorded Maryland history.

(from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/)

It was felt across the Nation’s capital region. (President Obama, like many area residents, apparently slept through it.)

(from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/)

The devastation is all around us

(from http://famousdc.com/)

Already, spontaneous relief groups, such as Germantown Earthquake Relief have sprung up on facebook.

In light of such societal collapse in the DC burbs, now is the time to think of the children.

Day 2

Reacting swiftly to the desperate need in the Maryland burbs, other states rapidly deployed their most important disaster relief asset, adoption agencies.

Quake related abandoned children were soon sighted in Maryland grocery stores riding in grocery carts.

Adoption agencies wasted no time, stepping in and offering to help the poor abandoned children find new forever families outside the quake affected zone.

(See: this from Bastardette “…Texas Christian’s Dr. Karyn Purvis, the attachment lady who equates wheeling a kid around the store in a grocery cart with child abandonment…” I was at the conference, I saw Purvis spewing this crap with my own eyes.)

Day 3

Immediately, NCFA and JCICS swung into action, lobbying hard in DC, trying help legislators understand the scope of the natural disaster and the imperative of moving the children from the disaster zone to other parts of the country where they could have a better life.

Catholic Charities proposed a massive Baby Lift operation, ensuring that the tiniest and most fragile quake survivors are resettled in areas of safety with new adoptive families.

Other adoption agencies pleaded for adoptions to be fast tracked for the sake the of the children, saying, “It’s just a good example of how God can bring something good from such a horrible situation.”

The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute stepped in and a letter was signed demanding federal officials clear the way for the orphans of the Maryland quake be transported out of the chaos and that the federal government work with faith based relief partners.

(See: When Disaster Strikes, Adoption Is Sure to Follow, HAITI CHILD EVACUATION: A NEW OPERATION PEDRO PAN?, HAITI: OPERATION PIERRE PAN POSTPONED; POLITICIANS PANDER, SNAPSHOT: DISASTER EVANGELISM IN HAITI– GOD BRINGS “SOMETHING GOOD FROM A HORRIBLE SITUATION”, the Jan. 19th letter to Secretary of State Clinton, &  the Jan 20th letter.)

Day 4

Originally, only kids already in an adoption process were being allowed out of the Maryland suburbs.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and his wife, Judge Marjorie O. Rendell of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, along with an emergency medical team boarded a plane in Pittsburgh flatly stating, “enough is enough, the time for sitting around and talking is over, the Earthquake orphans of Maryland must be rescued!”

After hours of waiting in the holding pattern to land at the overburdened Montgomery County Airpark, the closest airport to the disaster zone, and the only airport with a runway large enough to accommodate the Rendell’s plane.  The pilot wormed his way into the queue, pushing other relief flights out of the way by demanding the tower let them land and pointing out the dignitaries he carried, saying, “The governor of Pennsylvania is on the plane.”

Initially, the flight was only to remain on the ground long enough for Montgomery county social workers to hand over to Governor Rendell and his party the foster kids taken from their foster families, Ikea orphans,  and grocery cart orphans inside the quake affected zone, but as that hand off took longer than expected, the Governor’s private plane was forced to relinquish its place on the tarmac for other relief flights.

After hours spent waiting around Rockville City Hall on the phone with federal officials, Governor Rendell finally managed to secure a lift back home on one of the military’s relief flights.

(Rockville city hall as it appeared before the quake.)

As the plane loaded, one of the social workers noted that one of the foster kids was not with the larger group. In the rush to get the kids out, one had been left behind, back at City Hall. The Social worker heroically refused to board the flight, insisting she stay behind until all “her kids” even the child who had been left behind who was not already in an adoption process be taken to safety. Fortunately, she and the child were able to catch a later fight.

University of Maryland lawyer and activist Testudo Terrapin objected after the July 15th earthquake:

“The government has collapsed, the police have collapsed, society as we knew it has collapsed. No one knows how many policemen, municipal workers, and other  there were, how many escaped, who is injured”. Many people are still missing. Governor Rendell, you cannot just take off with a plane load of our children!”

Governor Rendell pushed aside all criticism, ignoring it.

Just before  Governor Rendell’s heroic flightthe federal government had issued a special  “Humanitarian adoption policy” such that all kids from the Maryland disaster zone could be at least temporarily relocated to would-be-adoptive families in other states.

Governor Rendell at the press conference afterwards said his flight proved once again, the ends justify any means. He said one look into the eyes of the children on the Air Force C-17 that was heading to Pittsburgh, gave him all the justification he needed.

(See: Rendell uses his clout to get orphans out of Haiti, Haiti series- “It is madness. It is insane…” Bribes, Bullies, and Traffickers extract kids- part 4, (Part 4: Kids not in an adoption process being exported, bullies and bribes & the Rendells’ Raid, Mission To Rescue Orphans Was ‘Touch & Go’, & Rendell’s political clout comes in handy)

Day 5

From the moment the Rendell’s flight landed, phone lines at nearby adoption agencies across Pennsylvania began to ring off the hook with desperate would-be-adopters jockeying for position trying to gain one of the unspoken for Maryland earthquake orphans.

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett denounced the flight in the strongest possible terms. At a press conference hastily convened he spoke sternly, “You cannot simply come into Maryland and take our children, they are our future, they are tomorrow’s office workers, starbucks employees, and NIH researchers. Maryland needs her children!”

The Rendells, on the other hand, insisted their flight, despite its $5,578.29 cost to the Pennsylvania taxpayers was all worth it, while refusing to reimburse a single penny (despite Pennsylvania’s growing budget deficits.) Initially, after the flight the Governor had  bragged “This trip cost the taxpayers of Pennsylvania nothing.”

(See:  Governor Rendell lied to taxpayers about the cost of his religiously based child scavenging raid,  & Gov. Ed Rendell’s trip to rescue 54 Haitian orphans cost taxpayers after all.)

Day 6

An argry mob of quake survivors today briefly delayed the latest evacuation of orphans from the earthquake zone. The orphans were headed to the Montgomery County Airpark  when a group of 20 men blocked four women accompanying the children, shouting, “You can’t take our children!” Police briefly detained the women, and the orphans — ages 1-5 — spent three nights sleeping on the ground in one of Maryland’s many tent cities. Federal officials who had come from DC carrying the documents needed to take them out had been running late.

Fortunately, the children are now resting comfortably with their new forever families in a faith based shelter. They have been provided a meal of traditional Maryland cuisine of crabcakes, Maryland fried chicken, and beaten biscuits.

Fears of social unrest and the growing ire of Maryland residents in reaction to having their children removed have caused adoption agencies to act quickly, taking as many kids as possible as quickly as possible.

(See: 6 Haitian Orphans who had been detained land in US.)

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow, in which I’ll detail Laura Silsby’s Maryland adventure.

</sarcasm> </parody>

(No, I’m not really comparing Maryland’s bump in the predawn hours to the ongoing catastrophe in Haiti, I’m merely making a point about the arbitrary nature of who gets declared an orphan an the absurd lengths the industry and would-be-adopters go to in the aftermath of natural disasters and how such is viewed as normative and alright, if not “baby saving”. I’m merely re-contextualizing for the sake of parody in hopes that maybe at least some people will stop to think.)

Seriously, in real life?

I woke up, looked around, rolled over and went back to sleep.

All Bastards remain safe and sound in their homes in Maryland.

No mass child lift operations are underway… YET.

For those of you arriving here by way of my comment on the Huffington Post piece, or this article on RH Reality Check, my post in question can be found here:

Adoption in relation to Abortion provision, notes on clinics that embrace adoption marketing

As time allows I hope to write a response to these two pieces as well. But by way of a simple statement to chew on for the time being, allow me to point out the obvious:

There is no part of adoption that can be considered in any way “outside the culture wars.”

New Jersey

There is a significant possibility that New Jersey’s botched legislation, SCS1406  (SCS799/1399)  has been pulled for this session.

But this is no time to become complacent.

We must keep the pressure on: keep educating, keep communicating with lawmakers and the Governor, and keep working for nothing short of restored equality.

Those advocating in support for this sorry excuse for a bill intend to continue to work through the summer to push this bill and have it or similar legislation reintroduced at a later date.

Like the part in a horror movie where the “everything’s better music” kicks in, just before the monster pops back out to inflict dire harm, too many people assume once a bill has been pulled for the session they need not to worry about it anymore.

They couldn’t be more mistaken.

Those pushing this mangled bill want it to rise from the dead, to haunt the next session, (and likely the session after that, and the session after that at this rate ) as they capitulate, trading away a few rights here, a few people there… .

After all, once a bill’s advocates show a willingness to trade the human/civil/ and identity rights of subsets of people away, it then becomes merely an ongoing process of:

• Whose?
• How many?
• And what else are they willing to cede?

(Not that they were ever given the authority to trade certain people’s rights away by those directly affected, certainly not in the case of the kids who have yet to even be born!)

Legislators understand these people are willing to surrender other’s (And potentially their own) human rights, from there, it’s just a matter of what’s their price?

OR legislators can simply chose to do what they’ve done for the last 30 years, refuse to bring this process to any end, and keep stringing people along year after year after year. Each and every year people come back for it, willing to play “let’s make a deal” all over again.

Like a Vampire, they want this abomination to rise again (just when some hoped it was dead) and continue to threaten the genuine rights of adopted people, New Jersey’s abandoned and boarder babies, and their families.

Rather than pulling it entirely and coming back with a completely clean bill, one that would insist on nothing less than full equality for all those born in New Jersey, those favoring this deform legislation want to come back for more.

Much as I’m partial to a good Vampire flick, legislation this bad is a far greater horror than anything found in the movies.

It’s past time to throw some garlic on this fatally flawed bill, drive a stake through its “heart”, drag it out into the sunlight and watch it burn, and chop of its “head” just to be on the safe side.

Horrific legislation like this needs to go the way of all   “undead” Vampires come the clear light of day.

Sunlight is after all, the best disinfectant. It’s a solid cure for secrets, lies, and fake fanged beasties alike.

New Jersey’s abandoned kids, adoptees, their families all need their rights intact and their full equality, not another legislative horror that ensures some will be locked behind sealed records or vetoes for decades to come.

Bastard Nation Action Alert

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

NEW JERSEY UPDATE: Adoptees’ Birthright Bill Reported Shelved Until Fall–But Act Now to Kill It

Unofficial word (that is, it’s not on the New Jersey Leg website yet) is that the Adoptees’ Birthright Bill has been shelved until fall. According to news distributed earlier today to various lists, rumors of Gov. Chris Christie’s possible veto are very real. (Once it appears, I’ll link the official notice of postponement here.)

The following message came from NJCare under Pam Hasegawa’s signature. It reads in part:

From: Pam Hasegawa
To: jerseyAd-vocates JerseyAd-vocates , NJadopt _network , ANS Adoption-News-Service , Adoption Umbrella

After consulting with prime sponsors and other co-sponsors we reached a consensus that it is in our best interest to avoid a veto or conditional veto by the Governor. With at least one meeting scheduled with the Governor’s staff next month, the Adoptees’ Birthright Bill was removed from the board list of bills to be considered by the Assembly this Thursday.

Actually, Thursday has become a committee meeting day and the final vote on the budget will be next Monday. Then recess until September.

We will continue through the summer reaching out to legislators who have reservations, do more research (will need help with this), and will depend on your continued letters, prayers and encouragement as we look toward conversation with the governor’s staff (and, hopefully, Governor Christie himself.

NJCare plans to work this summer to convince the Assembly and Christie to support the bill. We’ll work, too: to kill it.

Bastard Nation was just about to send out a new action alert for you to contact the Assembly. We still want you to contact the Assembly (and Gov. Christie), so see the action alert directly below this blog for talking points.

BUT, with this additional information:

Bastard Nation has acquired a copy of NJCare’s contact and head count list; that is, an indication where each Assembly member stands on the bill. Go here, print it out, and make contact.

Also, see BLC’s blog: New Jersey S1406 (A1406/S799): Action Alert and Also Update, a detailed and thoughtful analysis of this greatly flawed bill’s implications for New Jersey and the rest of the country.

The Assembly and Gov. Christie cannot hear enough from those of us who support real bastard rights and not sloppy seconds.

Say it loud and say it proud:

I’m a bastard. I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!

Rhode Island

The Rhode Island General Assembly has adjourned for the year thankfully, without pushing through H7877/S2759 the horribly mangled original birth certificates access, (and lack there of) bill , not surprising considering they also failed to pass the latest version of an ethics bill, among other such casualties.

This article, Senator Perry: RI adoption-records bill appears dead, from back on June 10th explains some of  the thinking behind what happened near the end of the session. “Senate leadership” was pushing the bill to become prospective only with a veto, to Senator Perry’s credit he rejected the proposal: