There are several potentially incredibly damaging pieces of legislation moving through multiple states right now. They would affect both adopted people and our families of origin. Illinois’ HB 5428 is but one of several, but an important one, capable of tremendous damage, running as best it can by and large under the radar.

Since I blogged about it last (here and here,) the bill has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The next hearing on the bill will be Tuesday, April 13, at 2:30 pm in Capitol 400, Springfield, IL.

73adoptee has a strong post up regarding the critical importance of defeating this atrocious piece of legislation, Why Adoptee Rights Depend On Stopping Illinois HB 5428. She has ongoing coverage.

Bastard Nation, Illinois Open, and Green Ribbons Campaign for Open Records each have action alerts out about the bill. (See BN’s here,  BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: ILLINOIS HB 5428 (SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE) and Green Ribbons here, Join the Adoption Reform Illinois coalition and help restore adult adoptee rights in Illinois!)

I take strong issue with the wording of both of them for a number of reasons, (be that touting low abortion rates in states with open records, or  mislabeling this a “birth mother rights bill,” which it most certainly is not, as but two examples. Tactically, I am no fan of change.org “petitions.”) Thus out of necessity I’ve had to cobble together this little action alert of my own.

Please bear in mind, I’m pointing at the writings of those working on the bill, but I have to reiterate, per my links policy, just because I link a page, that should not be taken as an endorsement nor my personal agreement with everything on that page.

By way of some additional resources pertaining to the bill, see:

• Illinois Open and the Illinois Open blog
• BastardGrannyAnnie‘s blog
• Mary Lynn Fuller’s Rights of Adoptees blog is also carrying a great deal of coverage.
• Bastardette of course has a lot of history written about this bill and Sara Feigenholtz, the bill’s main sponsor, and her confidential intermediary pal Melisha Mitchell as well as some history concerning the previously attempted train wreck of a bill, IL HB 4623, that ran along many of the same themes as this year’s legislation.

I’ve also blogged about HB 4623 and Illinois’ Confidential Intermediary program previously, see Legislation- IL HB 4623 and IL’s Kafka-esque Confidential Intermediary Hell and Prospect of open records makes IL Catholic Conference fearful of potential lawsuits.

Please, if you care about the human, civil, privacy, and identity rights of Bastards and our families of origin, work to kill this bill.

Illinois HB 5428, the bill that is supposed to help adoptees get their obcs, but doesn’t – is on the move again. It was rushed through the House and passed on the House floor by a vote of 74 – 67. Now it’s going quickly through the Senate. It must be stopped right now in the Judiciary Committee.

The Illinois Judiciary Committee has scheduled a public hearing for HB 5428. It will be held on Tuesday, April 13, at 2:30 pm in Capitol 400, Springfield, IL. We hope that some of you will be able to attend and speak to the committee. This will be our opportunity to speak out and talk directly to these senators.

If public speaking isn’t your thing, then please consider coming anyways because we really need to have the committee members look out into the audience and see a lot of people who object to this bill. Your very presence in that room is extremely important!

We are also asking everyone to write and/or call the committee members before the hearing on the 13th. (Contact Information below)

The only way for Illinois to be a truly open state some day is to stop conditional legislation such as HB 5428 from getting a foot in the door now. We want a state where every single adoptee is free to request his obc, with no restrictions or alterations. We want a state where adoptees will be equal among themselves as well as with all other non-adopted citizens.

We need an unconditional bill to accomplish this goal. HB 5428 won’t help. It is a conditional bill (see specifics below) which will keep some adoptees locked out of the system for good.

The legislators will not revisit adoptee problems any time soon if they can get HB 5428 in the law now. History has proven this to be true.

The legislators do not care about the percentage of adoptees whose birth mothers will file a disclosure veto and keep them from getting a birth certificate. If the law makers really cared, they would change this bill right now so that 100% of Illinois adoptees could get their obcs. The legislators have absolutely no incentive to come back again another year – and they won’t.

Here is the law from Oregon. It is simple, to the point, and does the job. This is the kind of law we want but we will NEVER get it if HB 5428 passes.

“Upon receipt of a written application to the Illinois Dept. of Public Health, any adopted person 21 years of age and older born in the State of Illinois shall be issued a certified copy of his/her unaltered, original and unamended certificate of birth in the custody of the Dept. of Public Health, with procedures, filing fees, and waiting periods identical to those imposed upon non-adopted citizens of the State of Illinois.”

And the Senate Judiciary Committee member’s contact information:

CONTACT INFORMATION

We are very much aware that some of these email addresses may not be correct. It is extremely difficult to get any senate email addresses. They “don’t want them to be given out.” So please do the best you can and try and get through to as many as possible.

A short phone call to the senator’s office is an excellent alternative. FAX’s are good too.

ILLINOIS SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

REPUBLICANS

KIRK DILLARD

Phone 217-782-8148 FAX (630)-969-1007

http://dillard.senategop.org/index.php/contact-us-mainmenu-3

RANDALL M. HULTGREN

Phone 217-782-8022 FAX (217)-782-9586

senatorrandyhultgren@gmail.com.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

MATT MURPHY

Phone 217-782-4471 FAX (847) 776-1494

http://www.murphy2010.com/connect.aspx

DALE A. RIGHTER

217 – 782-6674 FAX (217)-235-6052

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http://www.dalerighter.com/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1&Itemid=3

DEMOCRATS

WILLIAM R. HAINE

217-782-5247 FAX (217) 782-5340

whaine@senatedem.state.ilga.gov

TERRY LINK

217-782-8181 FAX (847-735-8184)

senator@link30.org or

tlink@senatedem.state.ilga.gov

MICHAEL NOLAND

217-782-7746 FAX (217) 782-2115

mnoland@senatedem.state.ilga.gov

KWAME RAOUL

217-782-5338 FAX (773) 681-7166

raoulstaff@gmail.com or

kraoul@senatedem.state.ilga.gov

IRA SILVERSTEIN Co-Sponsor of bill

217-782-5500 FAX (217-782-5340)

isilverstein@senatedem.state.ilga.gov

DON HARMON

217-782-8176 FAX ( 708) 848-2022

dharmon@senatedem.state.ilga.gov.

A.J.WILHELMI Chief Sponsor of the bill

217-782-8800 FAX (815) 207-4446

http://ajwilhelmi.com/ajwilhelmi/?page_id=42

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awilhelmi@senatedem.state.ilga.gov

Representative Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chgo) is the main sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives.

You can also read the bill’s full text and see the updated  status of the bill.