The bill isn't filed yet, but it gained traction Monday when the Columbus Dispatch published: Abortion foes focus on easing Ohio adoptions
Since the bill isn't up yet, we can't say what it says exactly, so I'm going by the Dispatch report only. Here, is a rundown from Mike Gonidakis, adoptive father of two and President of Ohio Right to Life:. .
- Decrease the waiting time for adoption finalization from 1 year to 60 days (Note: this seems to be a mistake. Under the ORC, adoption finalization can currently take place no less that 6 months after placement.)
- Decrease the eligibility time a man can file with the Ohio Putative Father's Registry (PFR) from 30 days to 7.
- Require adoption agencies and adoption lawyers to inform fetal fathers (before the birth of the child) that an adoption plan is being made; thus, giving them more time to file with the PRF (if they can find it)
- Increase the Ohio adoption tax credit from $1500 to $10,000 to be spread out over four years, substantially offsetting the cost of the adoption
- Decrease "birthmother" fraud by requiring adoption agencies and adoption lawyers to make living expense payments provided by paps (prospective adoptive parents) directly to service providers (doctors, landlords, utilities), not to "birthmothers" themselves. Under current law, these funds go directly from pap to "birthmother". The $3000 payment limit would not change.
This proposal has more holes than the proverbial Swiss cheese. Two months is far from enough time for ethical post-placement. follow-up and opens the adoption process to corruption, child abuse, and adoption fraud. even more than it already is. When I was adopted finalization took approximately a year and a social worker made at least three unannounced visits to our home between my placement and adoption finalization.. That is not too much to expect today. If you're doing it right, what's the rush? Combined with the PFR provision (below), the shortened time frame is no more than a new way to push dads out of the way and hide their children from them..
My other big concern is the PFR. There is nothing to prevent a woman from claiming she doesn't know the name of the father or giving a false name and contact information for the father, or just refusing to name him at all, or naming several men as possible fathers (Hello, Maury!) It certainly doesn't require her to tell the putative father that she is even pregnant. She can just weasel. Moreover, under current law, a man can register with the PFR any time after he has sex with a woman. (according to court rulings when a man has sex with a woman he's put on notice). Although some men do get snookered, they currently have plenty of the time to get on the books if they suspect adoption may be afoot. But since the PFR is unadvertised, does it even matter?. ORTL needs to look at the current scandals of Baby Veronica and Baby Deserai among the latest adoption parade of horrors to see where this will lead. (For more about the the legal situation of putative fathers and the Ohio PFR go to ericksmith.org
The adoption tax credit sends a very bad message: adoption welfare. (What a boon for serial adopters!) What ever happened to "if you can't afford a child, don't have one?" bringing up the whole "deserving" issue.
Welfare moms : Off the dole you go!
Adoptive parents: On the dole you go!
I don't have an original source for this quote, but someone said recently in a tweet, "welfare cuts + adoption tax credits is redistributive wealth." " I couldn't agree more.
There is, in fact, nothing in this measure, as far as we know, that offers "opportunities" for women to keep their children. Or for that matter opportunities for them to turn their newborns in for adoption, unless you factor in the Draconian legislation that ORTL pushed through last session. These new measures include diverting state Planned Parenthood funds to evangelical "crisis pregnancy centers." requiring abortion providers to force clients to listen to fetal heartbeats, and a ban on state-subsidized rape counselors making discussing abortion and making abortion referrals. Today the New York Times published a piece covering the full range of Ohio's new anti-abortion regulations that explains the climate ORTL believes it has created for cheap and easy newborn adoption.
The adoption tax credit sends a very bad message: adoption welfare. (What a boon for serial adopters!) What ever happened to "if you can't afford a child, don't have one?" bringing up the whole "deserving" issue.
Welfare moms : Off the dole you go!
Adoptive parents: On the dole you go!
I don't have an original source for this quote, but someone said recently in a tweet, "welfare cuts + adoption tax credits is redistributive wealth." " I couldn't agree more.
******
This bill is really about opportunities to make adoption cheaper and easier for paps.. Goindakis admits as much. "“We’re trying to make adoptions better, cheaper and faster,” he told the Dispatch. "In Ohio, adoption is too expensive, too bureaucratic, inefficient at best, and there is too much hardship and heartache in the process.”
Hardship and heartache for whom?
I'm writing this quickly to get the word out. I'll be writing more in depth later. I'm trying to get a pre-flie copy of the bill or at least a synopsis today.
TWITTER: Twitter fried my account and I was forced to start a new one. Besides tweeting The Daily Bastardette I tweet (and retweeet) about adoption issues, civil rights, freedom of the press, the corporate state, plus some local stuff. Join me there! Daily Bastardette @DBastardette.
I'm writing this quickly to get the word out. I'll be writing more in depth later. I'm trying to get a pre-flie copy of the bill or at least a synopsis today.
TWITTER: Twitter fried my account and I was forced to start a new one. Besides tweeting The Daily Bastardette I tweet (and retweeet) about adoption issues, civil rights, freedom of the press, the corporate state, plus some local stuff. Join me there! Daily Bastardette @DBastardette.
