Ohio History: Author of Ohio'sealed records said "parents don't have to waste time on heredity"

A few days ago while going over testimony for Ohio's HB61, I found a most astounding story  from Ohio Birth Parent's Group leader Kate Livingston.  It was taken from her MA thesis, which documents through primary sources and interviews the involvement of Ohio Right to Life's big role in the continued sealing of OBCs in the state. (As far as I know Kate's thesis isn't online. It should be!)

Testifying that the intent in sealing records has never been to protect the "privacy" of relinquishing biological parents Kate quoted Rep, Edward Schumacher, chief sponsor of HB 202, the bill that sealed Ohio's post-1963 records".

 My bill closes the book on background, which is the way it should be handled. My law gives the child a clear [sic] slate. [Adoptive] Parents start right away providing the child with necessary guidance and direction. They don’t have to waste time on heredity. People lay too  much stress on heredity. It’s advisable for children not to know they’re adopted. If they knew, they’d be seeking to find out why they do certain things. If a kid knows he’s adopted, he has a crutch. ‘Oh, that’s not my fault,’ he’ll say, ‘that’s my [birth] family’s fault.’ I closed the book because knowing isn’t going to change a thing. This law gives the child an opportunity to start some place as if that were the day he was born. It’s better for society and for the child if he doesn’t know he’s adopted. If told, it forever creates a yearning. They just start asking a lot of questions.”

                                          ...Rep. Edward Schumacher on HB 202, quoted in Cincinnati Magazine, 1987

Little can surprise me anymore, but Schumacher's astonishing ideas are so out of the ballpark that I feel they need to be broadcast and distributed to show just how nonsensical the sealed records debate (if you could call it that back then) was in 1963 and unfortunately remains today..

 How a sealed birth certificate gives anyone but the adoptive parents a "clean slate" is a mystery. Does OBC availability stop adoptive parents from providing a child with guidance and direction?  Were those Ohioans adopted before January 1, 1964 reared without them? Are pre-1964 Ohio adoptees basket cases because they can find out where they came from and post 1963 adoptees happy clams because they can't?

Oddly, a few years ago, Tom Atwood, then the CEO of the National Council for Adoption argued that if adoptees knew they could get their OBCs at the age of majority then, they would be a constant terror to their adoptive parents do whatever they want,  knowing that at 18 or 21 they could leave home and go back to their real parents. Well, my OBC was always available.  Iit never occurred to me that I could  terrorize my adoptive parents and then return "home" as an adult, though I once threatened to run away when my amom attempted  to send me to the Jane Skinner Modeling  School which had nothing to do with adoption, and everything to do with my dislike of dresses.

Even by the most conservative adoption standards of the day, Schumacher stands alone. Never has any credible adoption professional advocated that adoptees NOT be told they are adopted   Now I guess I need to look in the Ohio Birth Index Supplementals to see if  Schumacher had a little secret. He had several step children, who I assume knew their status.

By the way, Schumacher, explained his legislative philosophy in a 1951 interview in the Cincinnati Post:  I like to see things done slowly and steadily, so they don't have to be done over."

Well, guess what Ed?  We've been doing over your work for decades! Steadily and unfortunately slowly.

* (This testimony never flew and was scrubbed from the NCFA website years ago)

Kate Livingston

Hell Freezes Over Again Ohio Catholic Conference Supports OBC Access

Hell froze over in Ohio last Wednesday for the second time, when The Ohio Catholic Conference endorsed HB61, a bill  to restore the right of unrestricted OBC access to those person adopted in Ohio between January 1, 1964-September 17, 1996.  The access right of those adopted after that date is left high and dry due to the 1996 Disclosure Veto compromise which gives biological parents the special privilege  that no other person has, to bar the state from releasing the OBC.  Ohio Legislative Services  which nitpicks every bill  for legalities that crosses its path in  the Statehouse, won't let that one go.Yet. Ohio Vital Statistics does not keep track of the number of DVs submitted  but it's believed to be  a small number, perhaps less than 20.(I"ll be writing more about this later.)

You can read Tobin's testimony here, and, here's a picture of the relevant testimony taken by Linda Niehaus, whom I sat with:

"...we are pleased to support HB 61." (Posted with permission of Linda Niehaus) 

The hearing started out with a whimper, but ended with a bang (apologies to TS Eliot).  About 45-50 witnesses and supporters from around the state attended.  Due to "floor business" the hearing, scheduled for 3:00 PM didn't start until nearly 5:00 PM    From past experience I knew that committees don't like to run on after 5:00 and by 4:30 I half-expected the hearing to be cancelled.  (Other bills were up for testimony, too.)  But at 4:55 leggies began to troop into Room 121,  Due to time constraints only Betsie Norris from Adoption Network Cleveland and Adoption Equity Ohio/ROAR testified, mainly responding to questions brought up at the last hearing.  Remaining testimony was submitted. That " remaining testimony" included an endorsement from Jim Tobin of the Catholic Conference, a traditional opponent, with the already supporting Ohio Right to Life (see entry below this) of OBC restoration. No opponent or neutral testimony was offered. Judiciary voted the bill out unanimously 12-0. HB61  now heads for the House Floor, where I personally believe it will pass.No date has been announced yet, but it could take place as early as this  week.

The hearing for companion bill, SB23, originally scheduled for March 20 in the Senate Medicaid, Health and Human Services Committee has been cancelled.  The bill will most likely be heard the second or third week of April.  Starting next week, the legislature is on a two-week spring break.

For more information on the bill and hearing go to the ROAR site and click on Update 10. Bastard Nation is not affiliated with ROAR or this legislation.

Here's some pictures from the March 13 hearing.

Hanging out in the hall before the hearing

House Judiciary Committee votes

Spending a lifetime at this:  Jake Teschler and Linda Niehaus

Linda Niehaus and Margaret

Cleveland folks.  I know names but forget

Hell Freezes Over Again

Hell froze over again in Ohio yesterday when the Catholic Conference endorsed HB61 which if passed will unseal the OBCs of thousands of Ohio adoptees born between Jan 1, 1964-September 17, 1996.

HB61 sailed through the House Judiciary Committee unanimously 12-0 and is now on it's way to the House Floor.

I have to go to work and can't write anymore at the moment.  More later.

Hell Freezes Over: Ohio Right to Life Supports OBC Access, March 6, 2013

Hell froze over last Wednesday (March 6, 2013) when Ohio Right to Life, dropped its decades long opposition to OBC access and testified before the House Judiciary Committee  in support of HB61.  We knew earlier that ORTL had dropped its opposition, but its endorsement and testimony came as a surprise. You can read this historical  testimony on the Bastard Nation webpage.  The testimony begins:

Some of you may know that for decades, Ohio Right to opposed opening adoption records to adoptees born/adopted between 1964 and 1996. The concerns of privacy and the repercussions for adoptive families, however, are fading with time as cultural perceptions about adoption have changed. Historically, arguments to keep the records closed were based on the idea that it would protect adoptees from potential embarrassment about the circumstances of their birth, or to protect adoptees from unwanted contact from birth parents. Frankly, these are outdated concerns, but it is this rationale that keeps 1964 – 1996 adoptees from being able to access their original birth certificate. Ohio law keeps these records closed, yet when the laws were revisited in 1996, it was decided that all adoptions finalized after that point are open unless parents choose to close their records. Even so, most younger adoptees (born in 1996 and after) will have the ability to obtain their original birth certificate from the Office of Vital Statistics when they are 21 years old. Those born in the previous window do not have this option, creating a disparity based  simply on the year they happened to be born.

Ohio Right to Life is the flagship of the National Right to Life Committee. ORTL has guided policy and practice of National for as long as I can remember.  For many years OBC access was a divisive factor within NRTL with NRTL co-founder Dr. John Sonne supporting adoptees and Ohio's anti-abortion powerhouse, former NRTL president, Dr. John Willke opposing.  Although NRTL does not have a national policy on adoptee rights and OBC access, individual states  have looked to Ohio traditionally  for policy guidance on many issues including adoption. ORTL's refusal to support records access in the past, I believe has fueled state- RTL  opposition throughout the country.. Now that the flagship has sailed into our harbor, we are hopeful that other states will drop opposition. Of course  the danger lays in states where compromise is popular. and deformers, as they like to d, will offer Disclosure Vetoes, Contact Vetoes, white-outs and other restrictions as bait for possible RTL  and Catholic Church support. It's a two-edged sword.

Obviously, ORTL testimony was the highlight of last week's proponent hearing.  I  attended the hearing and intended to write up a review as soon as I got home. Obviously that didn't happen, and a second proponent hearing is scheduled for tomorrow--followed by a possible vote out of Judiciary.

Rather than me re-hashing something that will soon be "old news" soon I suggest you go  Adoption Equity Ohio to read updates on the bill, accounts of the hearing,  and sponsor and proponent testimony. (This is not a BN bill and we are not affiliated with AEO/ROAR).  Click on Update #9 in the left-hand column which will take you to the latest news (as of today).  It appears that all opposition has disintegrated with the turning of ORTL, an indication of  the state of politics in the current Ohio General Assembly. The Senate companion bill, SB 23 has the support of some of the strongest anti-abort lawmakers in the state including the President of the Senate, Keith Faber, a co-sponsor.

I believe that HB61 and its companion SB23 has a very good chance of passing. Unfortunately, the bills are not perfect. "1996"  adoptees  (the third tier) are left unmentioned,  Veto language  in the 1996 law and a tiny number of on-file DVs  hold an entire bastard class  hostage to the whim of a few misguided biological parents.. We hope that this neglect will be addressed in a later bill, though a remedy will be tricky and no doubt controversial. Whatever happens in the future,  this IS  what happens  now when DVs are allowed to get a toe in the door.  If the DV compromise had not been made in 1995-1996, Ohio would not be stuck with today's 3-tired system, and (if the bill passes) a 2-tired system in the future. We would be restoring the right to all  Ohio adoptees to their OBCs , not just those of adoptees born between January 1, 1964 and September 17, 1996. It is now easier to unseal the records of all, when DVs are not in place.

The whole thing makes me sick. While DVs were basically an unknown in 1996, the damage they cause today is well known--yet disregarded by todaoy's adoption deformers who wil take what they can get,  thus screwing us all and subverting the movement for and the meaning of OBC access.  I'll write more about this later.

Here's some pictures from last week's hearing.  About 60 people attended--more than I've ever seen at an Ohio OBC hearing.

Long-time adoptee rights activist and BNer Pam Zaebst

Jake Teschler, long-time Columbus activist

Kate Livingston, Ohio Birthparent Group and professional ass-kicker

Jaimie Miracle, NARAL

Sundquist lawyer Fred Greenman and Adam Pertman, EBD

After the hearing