April 18, 1997
Governor George Bush
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Fax: 512-463-1849
Dear Governor Bush,
I was born and raised in Hereford, Texas and have been a child placement professional in Dallas for the past 24 years. I am the only adoption professional in Texas who has managed the adoption services of two different 80+ year old adoption agencies in Texas, and within 3 years was able to increased the numbers of infant placements over 65% at one agency and over 100% at the second agency.* No other professional in Texas has increased infant adoptive placements to this extent for agencies with the traditions of service such as the Lutheran and Catholic agencies I have served. I know what it takes to do more adoptions. I have done it.
House Bill 1835 and Senate Bill 1445 will continue to improve the image of the adoption alternative in Texas. They are needed. Adoptees have a right to that information. Birth mothers do not want to place children into situations wherein such basic human rights as the right to have your own original birth certificate will be denied.
I have been told that you are threatening a veto of these bills if they pass. I am amazed. You are getting very bad information that will continue to cost the lives of children in Texas who will be lost due to abortion. I have said the rosary on many occasions in front of abortion clinics here in Dallas. I know this law will improve the dignity of the adoption process. That is what I have worked my entire professional life to achieve.
I also want to urge you for the sake of that 5% of birth mothers who want their privacy maintained to pass this bill. It is false advertising for any adoption agency to claim that they can protect any birth mother from past years against possible contact from the child they placed, now an adult. One of the positive elements of HB1835 is that it requires that the adopted adult wanting their birth certificate also register with the adoption registry in Texas. If there is any birth mother wanting to keep her identity as a birth mother secret, I would recommend she file a personal letter with that registry making that request, and explaining why the request is made. While such situations are rare I would recommend that all such Birth mothers be trained as to the ways they could improve the potential for their privacy to be maintained. One of the best ways is to communicate directly with the adoptee and make a personal request. Such a personal request has a significantly increased probability of being listened to and followed.
In the same way I want to warn you against what is known as "mutual consent registries." There are a multitude of reasons that they do not work and are counter productive to the dignity of the adoption process. If there are any questions in this area please let me know.
In some areas of the world there have been birth mother vetoes allowed against an adoptees right to this basic human information. In my strong opinion that is misleading to birth mothers. It increases the potential for an adoptee to contact other members of the birth mother's family, and thereby increases the potential for her secret to be made public.
There is something inconsistent in advertising that "adoption is a loving choice" and then in the same breath to state through our current adoption laws in Texas "but we understand if you want to hide in shame the rest of your life." Our laws must be consistent with the dignity with which we should hold birth mothers and fathers. They have made a loving choice!!! This truth is the power behind my success in expanding infant adoption services for two agencies in Texas.
If you want to protect birth mothers please support HB1835. It will encourage communication among triad members, especially those wanting privacy. That will increase the potential for any requests for privacy to be listened to and followed.
I will be sending to you separately a 40 page document which provides more of the proof you will need, in addition to my personal experience and that of hundreds of others, that your threatened veto of HB1835 will hinder adoption practice in Texas and increase the potential for abortions.
May I meet with you or your staff? When could this be arranged?
Sincerely,
Bill Betzen, LMSW, ACSW
* I was Regional Director over the North Texas Region of Lutheran Social Services of Texas from 1986 through 1989. I was able to increase adoptions from 26 to 43 adoptions a year at that agency. I then became Administrator over Catholic Counseling Services in Dallas and increased the number of placements from 15 to 33, also within three years. For Lutheran Social Services that was an all time record for the North Texas Region. For Catholic Charities in Dallas it was more infant placements than at any time in the previous 20+ years. While each agency aggressively served all ethnic groups, most of the increase in placements happened in the area of healthy Anglo infant placements. More details on how this was done is available on the Domestic Infant Adoption web pages I manage at http://www.openadoption.org/bbetzen.
Bill Betzen LMSW, ACSW
Working to pass HB1835/SB1445 in Texas!!
Adult Adoptee Birth Certificate Access
http://www.openadoption.org