What Occurred During the 2010 Legislative Session

The 2010 Legislative Session was a time for learning for WA-CARE.  We begun with a hope and only the vaguest idea of what we needed to do to turn that hope into a bill and that bill into a law.

We looked at Washington’s current laws concerning adoption and birth certificates and at bills that those before us had tried.  We also looked at Oregon’s law and how they got there.We decided that in addition to the original birth certificate adult adoptees should also be able to have a copy of their adoption decree.  Without the adoption decree there is no link between the original birth certificate and the amended birth certificate; nothing that states that these two documents refer to the same person.

We focused on the committees we believed the bill would go through and began requesting meetings with Legislators.  We eventually found a Senator who agreed to sponsor our bill and after getting his signature we dropped it in the hopper.

It became Senate Bill 6320 and was eventually assigned to the Human Services and Corrections committee.  The chair of the committee was hesitant, but our sponsor managed to convince him to allow the bill to be heard.  Four members of WA-CARE were present to testify in favor of the bill.  No one testified in opposition, however, the bill was not voted on and thus it died that day.

In the House we were unable to find a sponsor for our bill, however, a similar bill was being run independent of our efforts.  HB 3028 originally contained a clause to extend the 1993 affidavit of non-disclossure to all birth parents for a brief time. However as amended in Substitute HB 3028 the affidavit would not be extended to any who were not granted it under the 1993 law and it would end for those who had been granted it in 1993 when/if the bill became a law. Also at that time a contact preference form would become available to birth parents.  We remained opposed to the original bill and agreed to testify for the substitute bill.

Unfortunately many were opposed to the amendments made and the bill died in committee after the testimony.

What We Are Asking For

We are asking that access to birth records re-instated to all adoptees, not just those who were adopted after 1993. Adopted persons deserve the same rights to access documents that pertain to them as non-adopted persons.

What We’re Up Against: Current WA Law

Back in the 1940s Washington became one of many states that began sealing adoption records.  Based on my research I believe that at the time Washington (and other states) began keeping adoptees from their birth records no one understood the very negative impact not having access to one’s own past, identity, and documents could have on the adoptees.  Professionals at the time stated they were making an effort to protect adoptees from the stigma of illegitimacy and birth parents from the stigma of having been pregnant.  However, secrecy compounds stigma creating shame that can destroy a person’s self worth. Many of the people involved, including many adoptive parents, birth parents, social workers, and legislators would not have agreed to the law if they had more information at the time, but they didn’t.

Welcome to the WA-CARE Blog

Welcome to the blog for the Washington Coalition for Adoptee Rights and Equality (WA-CARE)!

Last legislative session we created a facebook group, however, due to character limits and other usablity issues it has not been meeting our needs and thus we have started a blog to keep interested parties in the loop.

Coming soon:

A summary of last sessions efforts and and an update on our progress.