May 2016

May 16, 2016. Coming Legislation. We hope to have news soon of new legislative initiatives which will help better the situation of unparented children without permanent, loving homes. We look forward to being able to share this information with you as soon as we can.

May 12, 2016. Government and Other Notices: Mexico. The Department of State has informed the adoption community that the Mexican National Welfare System, or Sistema Nacional para el Desarollo Integral de la Familia (DIF Nacional), which is in charge of authorizing U.S. accredited Adoption Service Providers (ASPs) to provide adoption services in intercountry adoptions involving Mexico, is drafting new ASP authorization regulations. Furthermore, the DIF Nacional's offices are being restructured which will affect the timing of the new regulations. An ASP must have a valid authorization for it to provide services involved in an intercountry adoption with Mexico. However, DIF has stated that this restructuring will not affect DIF's review of prospective adoptive parents' dossiers. More Information.

May 11, 2016. The Good News About Transracial Adoption. A new study has confirmed what parents of transracially adopted children long have believed: children who are adopted transracially "are capable of developing a solid sense of identity and family regardless of the racial composition of their families." Moreover this study found that parents of transracially adopted children were more likely to speak about race, which is generally alleged not to be the case and that Asian adoptees were more likely to help others than white adoptees. More Information.

May 10, 2018. Bill to Remove the term "Oriental" heads to President Obama. Legislation originally sponsored by Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) which would remove the inappropriate word "Oriental" from federal laws has passed both houses of Congress and heads to President Obama's desk. The President is expected to sign the measure shortly. References to "Oriental" still appear in U.S. laws and as Meng says, "The word 'Oriental' is a derogatory and antiquated term and the passage of this legislation will soon force the United States government to finally stop using it," In 2009, when Meng was a member of the New York state legislature, she was instrumental in getting a similar law passed which changed official New York terminology. More Information.

May 9, 2016. Adoptee Citizenship Bill Needs Support. As we have been discussing, S.2275, the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2015, needs more Congressional Sponsors. Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced into the Senate but the legislation needs to be introduced into the House of Representatives. This is not an immigration bill nor does it have anything to do with children who have not been adopted by U.S. parents. This is a bill designed to fix a glitch in the procedure which enables foreign born children adopted by U.S, parents to achieve U.S. citizenship. Supporters of the bill include Kevin Vollmers with the group Gazillion Strong, a multimedia storytelling organization in Minneapolis. "This is a human rights issue," said Vollmers, who is a Korean adoptee with U.S. citizenship. "There are folks who are tying this in with anti-immigration sentiment ... Regardless of what people think about anti-immigration or immigration, this question is fundamentally about adoptions. Vollmers' organization and others are holding a national day of action later this month in support of the bill. More Information.

May 5, 2016. Indiana Installs First Baby Boxes. The first two safe haven baby boxes have been installed in Indiana. These are climate controlled environments with security systems next to fire departments. If a baby is left there, emergency workers will know immediately and can get to the baby in minutes. Every state has a "safe haven" law which allows birth mothers to leave their babies in police stations, fire departments or hospitals without fear of criminal penalties. More Information.

May 4, 2016. Gay Adoption Now Legal in All Fifty States. The deadline has passed for Mississippi to appeal a federal court ruling which struck down Mississippi's ban on gay adoption. While this result was expected, as it follows from the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges which held that banning gay marriage is unconstitutional, we want to celebrate the fact that all qualified parents may adopt children who need a permanent loving family. What a wonderful revolution we have witnessed. More Information.

May 3, 2016. International Surrogacy Options Decline. During the last decade increasing numbers of would-be parents traveled to Nepal or India for surrogacy procedures. Sometimes home countries banned surrogacy, making international options the only possible ones. Other times, the motivation for interantional surrogacy was cost--the expense of surrogacy in either country was far less than in the United States. But following a number of controversial cases, Nepal and India have banned foreign surrogacy. Same-sex couples have the hardest time since they are banned from some of the few open international surrogacy programs, such as Ukraine. More Information.