Dr. Donna Campbell, a Texas legislator has written a preemptive letter against Texas changing the law that seals an adult adoptee’s original birth certificates away from them. As I read the letter, it made me feel like adoptees aren’t part of families who adopt and birth parents who place. No room at the table for adult adoptees. She does state accommodations can be made to provide medical history, and notes there is already a way for an adoptee to get their original birth certificate, I.e. if they know the name of the parent(s) on the original birth certificate…
@DonnaCampbellTX surprised by your letter! In 2015 HB984 passed house 138/1&SenateStateAffairsComm 8/0… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…
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TxAdopteeRights (@txadopteerights) December 09, 2016There is no such thing as anonymity anymore. Whether it’s now or later, with the advance in DNA testing and a growing segment of the population taking part, it’s not if, it’s when.
Support adoptee rights, it’s the right thing to do.
The adopted ones blog 
Lara/Trace
December 10, 2016 at 9:01 pm
Human trafficking needs sealed records. She is either part of it or abhorrent.
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Heather
December 11, 2016 at 7:45 am
Damn … what is she so afraid of?
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cb
December 11, 2016 at 11:33 am
It sounds to me like she has been reading Thomas Atwood’s “How Mandatory records harms adoption” with all her talk of it not being the government role to insert itself in the process (umm, sealed records is the government inserting itself in the process), worry it being a bad policy for adoptive families with unintended consequences (the sky hasn’t fallen in in other states or countries) and talk of open/closed adoptions (the bill is about open/sealed records, nothing to do with open/closed adoptions):
https://www.adoptioncouncil.org/files/large/51b88397ce40ecf
Hopefully, seasoned adoption advocates will be at the next hearing of the Bill and will be able to shoot down any of her arguments, none of which hold water.
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schrodie
March 28, 2018 at 11:52 am
When an adoptee-rights bill starts gaining any traction in the Lege and looks as if it’s guaranteed to pass, Campbell waits until the very last few days of the Session and then pulls it off the Intent Calendar so there can’t be any Senate vote on the matter. That’s what happened in 2017, when there were identical bills in both houses. Both houses were ready to pass legislation, the House bill sailed through with flying colors and went to the Senate’s Intent Calendar, but Campbell yanked it with only about 2 days remaining in the Session… too late to put it back on the Intent Calendar and work through the Senate vote. Completely chicken-crap maneuver.
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Ellen
December 20, 2016 at 2:54 pm
I get sooooo sick and tired of it being about everybody but us adult adoptees. The government has inserted itself in our lives since the day we were born. Where’s the accountability about the decisions that were made for us without our knowledge or consent?
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TAO
December 20, 2016 at 7:18 pm
Yes!
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Cindy
April 1, 2018 at 7:15 am
In the first paragraph Campbell says, “Last session a bill was filed in the house that would have devastating consequences for families that adopt…”
In the second paragraph she says, “I want to be up front with you about my opposition to this bill, as an adoptive mom, and my intentions to stop what I see as a bad policy for adoptive families with many unintended consequences.”
After reading her letter, I can’t help but feel reinforced in my opinion that very often the reluctance and outright refusal to pass adoptee access bills is strictly to “protect” the adoptive parent/s parenthood. No, no, no to ANY other birth certificate. Especially not the original /true /real /unfalsified birth certificate.
The decision to pull a bill off the calendar should not be in the hands of one single person. Especially not one that has such a vested interest in seeing the bill killed.
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TAO
April 1, 2018 at 2:08 pm
🙂
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