Adoption News
Author Pam Litman Celebrates Adoption Day with
"My New Family and Me"
November 18, 2015
Woodbury – Pamela Litman, author of a new children’s book, "My New Family and Me," urges parents and their adopted children to celebrate and share the joys of adoption during November, which is National Adoption Month. This is especially true on Sunday, November 22, which has been designated National Adoption Day.
President Obama recently issued a proclamation saying in part:
"All young people deserve a safe place to live, and with each passing year, more children know the warmth and comfort of a loving family thanks to adoptive parents. People who adopt do so for a variety of reasons, but they are united in the kindness and devotion they show toward children — the people who need it most. During National Adoption Month, we recognize the selflessness of adoptive families, and we thank them for opening their hearts and their doors to young people in need of a safe, stable place to call home."
Link to article: http://patch.com/new-york/oysterbay/author-pam-litman-celebrates-adoption-month-my-new-family-me
New Jersey: Adoption Records To Become More Open
Associated Press, @ap 2:56 p.m. EDT April 28, 2014
TRENTON, N.J. - Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers have struck a deal to allow people adopted in New Jersey access to their birth records, but the compromise puts the opening of records on hold for nearly three years to give birth parents time to have their names removed from birth certificates.
The deal is expected to become law, with Democratic leaders in both chambers of the Democrat-controlled Legislature hailing it. It would cap a 34-year push by a group of advocates for adoptees and their biological parents to open the records in New Jersey for the first time since they were sealed in 1940.
"It feels like a miracle," said Pam Hasegawa, a leader of the New Jersey Coalition for Adoption Reform and Education, which has been pushing the issue.
"It's sending a message particularly to women like me who surrendered babies in the '50s,' 60s and '70s that we no longer have to hide in secrecy and shame," said Judy Foster, another member of the group. Foster later reconnected with her daughter, whom she gave up at birth in 1961, 37 years after she was born and has maintained a relationship since.
The advocates say it's a way for families to reunite, and also for people to have access to their family medical histories.
The New Jersey Catholic Conference and other groups pushed back, arguing that birth mothers who gave up children decades ago have a right to privacy.
Lawmakers passed a bill in February to allow adoptees to see the records. Monday was the deadline for the governor to take action. His conditional veto, which contains the compromise, was expected to be made public later Monday.
State Sen. Joseph Vitale, a Democrat from Woodbridge who has been a sponsor of the bill for 17 years, said he met with Christie last week to discuss a compromise. He said the deal their staffs hammered out would give birth parents of children who are adopted before Aug. 1, 2015, until the end of 2016 to ask that their names be removed from birth certificates. Those who do so would be asked to give some medical history, though.
Biological parents of children adopted after Aug. 1, 2015, would not have the option of redacting their names.
Birth parents of all adopted children would be able to give their preferences for whether -- and how -- they could be contacted. They could change their choice at any time.
In Illinois, which has had a similar law in effect since 2011, more than 10,000 birth certificates have been provided. Biological parents have had their names removed from just 53 of them.
Eight other states -- Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island and Tennessee -- give adoptees unrestricted access.
