Sad news. SB381 - was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee's Suspense File
Hello Everyone,
Hard to come up with the words to send to all 2,571 of you.
SB381, the California Bill which would give access to Original Birth Certificates to California born Adult Adoptees and their direct descendants was "held" in the Assembly Suspense file. What this means is that the bill does not move forward. We fully expected it to pass and move on to a floor vote by the end of the month. Unfortunately, it won't. I wish I had better news.
I (We- California Alliance for Adoptee Rights) don't know why this happened. Once we find out any more information, I'll send out another update.
What has happened is that this bill made it farther along than any bill of this type in California history. If you worked on any of the previous bills, thank you! Your work helped our cause through awareness, fact finding, presentation of ideas etc. Without you, we never would have made it this far.
We built a tremendous amount of support with California State Legislators, adoptees, birth families, families who adopted, adoption lawyers, social workers and people who care. This petition alone has 18 Countries represented.
In our efforts we have had countless Zoom meetings with legislative offices( Had one yesterday), emails, phone calls (Thank you to all who participated), letters to the editor, so many letters from adoptees and birthmothers, newspaper articles, hero's that came from all over the state to Sacramento in order to testify at committee hearings, and most importantly, one on one meetings in the offices of legislators in Sacramento. As a retired person, I felt like I had a second job in the O building. The support we had from these offices and the votes that followed were tremendous. Empathetic. Understanding. Dumbfounded on why it has taken so long. Had it passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Suspense file, I (We) are almost certain that it would have passed the full assembly.
SB381 is a beautifully written bill which would only have done good things. "Truth and Transparency over Shame and Secrecy." We adoptees have separation trauma built in to our psyches. Having our original identities sealed into secrecy by the state is shameful. Our bill would have corrected this. It would have helped birth mothers who want to know what happened to the baby they relinquished. It gave an avenue through the contact preference form for birth mothers to reach out, give some family health history, say "I love you.", say "Don't contact me." etc. Truth is not always sunshine and roses.
Our main group of four leaders are great colleagues. Emily Troper, Lori Schultz, Wendy Turk and I share the leadership. We are truly a grass roots organization. It has been a pleasure working with them. They are tireless and fearless.
Senator Wahab has put in her best effort both behind the scenes and in front of committees. She is a lioness and because she was born in New York, as an adoptee she can access her original birth certificate thanks to the efforts of our New York advocates. She was paying it forward.
On a personal note, I had a heart attack a little over two weeks ago. Because I knew some of my family health history, I was aware of some of the symptoms and figured it out while it was happening, called 911 and my life was saved by a stent. Throughout my hospital stay, one night in the ICU and another in a different unit, I was asked about family health history repeatedly. I should make a full recovery, but it is slow. Still, I was planning on going to the floor vote. Health History matters. SB381 would have helped thousands learn about theirs.
What happens now?
We rest. We recover. We know that we gave it our best effort and that the stage is set if anyone wishes to try again. I've been at this for over five years, others much longer.
For more information, please join California Alliance for Adoptee Rights on Facebook.
Please note that this petition does not stop adding signatures until the governor signs a bill granting unrestricted access to California born adult adoptees into law.
In the meantime, please take care of your mental and physical health. Life is precious.
Feel free to send me an email if you wish or read my memoir entitled, We are all Human Beings, an Adoptee Ponders. You might be able to relate to some of it. Check out other memoirs, podcasts, support groups etc. You are not alone. Working on this bill has been very healing.
May thanks.
Sending adoptee love!
Paul
PKSTJohns@aol.com