HAWAI’I: BASTARD NATION THANKS GOV. LINDA LINGLE

Below is Bastard Nation’s letter of thanks to Hawai’i Governor Linda Lingle for standing up for the rights of family and identity in Hawai’i. A slightly different letter has been sent to legislators who opposed the override. The Honorable Linda LingleGovernor, State of Hawai`iExecutiveChambersState Capitol Honolulu, Hawai’ i 96813 July 17, 2007 Dear Governor Lingle: Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization thanks you for opposing HB1830, the so-called “safe haven” law. Baby abandonment and neonaticide are serious matters. So are identity erasure through unsound child welfare and surrender practice, the subversion of ethical adoption policy, the circumvention of parental rights (especially fathers rights) and the abrogation of traditional Hawai’an culture and hanai. HB 1830 “fixes” something that isn’t broken. As Honolulu blogger Mel wrote after the override, “HB 1830 is a bill looking for a problem to happen.” Newborns are seldom discarded in Hawai’i.If “safe haven” history is any indication of what will happen next in Hawai’I, expect to see newborns dressed in Baby Gap, accompanied with binkies, stuffed animals, a supply of diapers, and loving notes from supposedly murderous “desperate mothers” appear soon and mysteriously at emergency rooms and fire stations. Pregnant women and new parents considering an adoption Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I: LEGISLATURE OVERRIDES LINGLE VETO

If they build it, they will come: As expected, tonight the Hawai’i legislature overrode Gov. Linda Lingle’s veto of HB 1830. That Hawai has no newborn abandonment or neonaticide problem makes no difference to the baby harvesters. If it steals just one… Our friends from Massachusetts…you know, the ones who are barred from posting here, but who nonetheless continue to send pithy comments under the fitting name of “anonymous”… have been schmoozing Island leggies and talking heads for the last few days. You can read all about their adventures on their MySpace page. Since this was a done-deal, one can only ask why they went all that way and to all that expense to push a done-deal other than to hula on the beach and stick another piece of chewing gum on their bedpost over night. That, of course, is for their handlers to sort out. For now it’s entertaining enough to watch and wonder who is whose useful idiot. The identity rights of adoptees have been flushed down the sewer..but we must remember that a few brave legislators stood against the BS Haven juggernaut. The juggernaut, of course, had nothing to do “saving babies”and everything to do with sticking Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I" BASTARD NATION THANKS LINDA LINGLE

July 4, 2007 The Honorable Linda LingleGovernor, State of Hawai`iExecutiveChambersState CapitolHonolulu, Hawai’I96813 RE: HB 1830: Safe Haven/” Safe Place for Newborns”—Please Veto Dear Governor Lingle: Thank you for placing HB1830, the so-called “safe haven” bill, on your list of potential vetoes. We know that you are under political pressure to let the bill pass into law with or without your signature, and we urge you to make good on your intent to veto. Not one adoption reform organization on the mainland supports safe haven programs. Safe Haven laws circumvent uniform best practice child surrender standards such as the collection of the child’s identifying information, social, cultural and medical history. They thwart due process for parents—especially the father. They devalue communication and ethical counseling. They refute responsible legal alternatives to baby dumping: public assistance, temporary surrender, and permanent surrender for adoption. “Safe Haven” Hawai’an-style rejects hanai: extended family and community care. Not only will Native Hawai’ians, surrendered through the anonymous system be denied their native heritage but also benefits to which the are entailed to legally since they will unable able to prove eligibility Since 1996 there has been one media-reported prosecutable newborn death and no reported cases of unsafe newborn Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I HB 1830 REMINDER: LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD

Just a reminder. Hawai’i Governor Linda Lingle has until June 23 to announce if she is considering vetoing HB 1830, the latest incarnation of baby dump legislation in that state. Gov. Lingle needs to know that the adoptee rights/adoption reform community on the Mainland does not support so-called “safe haven” laws which commodify newborns and their parents, promote anonymous baby abandonment as “just another choice,” and undermine hanai. Gov. Lingle vetoed similar legislation in 2003 and has been the target of a pro-dump gang since. Read this “open letter” to the governor from one baby abandonment advocate. WHAT YOU CAN DO: Read the bill Read Bastard Nation’s letter to Gov Lingle published here on May 22. Read Bastard Nation’s full action alert published here on June 9. Read Gov. Lingle’s 2003 veto statement posted by the American Adoption Congress here Contact Gov. Lingle and key legislators. TALKING POINTS: • HB 1830 is not needed; newborn abandonment/neonaticide in the state is nearly unheard of. Since 1996 there has only been one prosecutable case… • HB 1830 rejects and undermines the traditional Hawai’ian practice of “hanai”– extended family and community care which insures that children, unable to be reared by their biological Continue Reading →

HAWAI’I: BASTARD NATION LETTER TO GOV. LINGLE:–PLEASE VETO HB 1830 BABY DUMP

Bastard Nation has faxed the following letter to Gov. Linda Lingle. Lingle vetoed a similar bill in 2003. May 22, 2007 The Honorable Linda LingleGovernor, State of Hawai`iExecutive ChambersState CapitolHonolulu, Hawai’i96813 RE: HB 1830: Safe Haven/”Safe Place for Newborns”—Please Veto Dear Governor Lingle: Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization urges you to continue to reject enactment of so-called “Safe Haven laws” in Hawai’i and to veto HB 1830. Bastard Nation agrees whole-heartedly with your June 20, 2003 veto statement in which you assert that “legalized abandonment” subverts hanai and traditional Hawai’ian family practice and values. “Safe Havens” endanger all families. There is no epidemic of newborn abandonment and neonaticide in Hawai’i. Even “Safe Haven” proponents admit this. An archive search of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin indicates that since 1996 there has been one reported prosecutable newborn death (manslaughter in Koloa, Kaua’i) and no reported cases of unsafe newborn abandonment. What need then is there to legalize newborn abandonment when illegal abandonment doesn’t happen? The mechanistic anonymous “Safe Haven” system of infant abandonment rejects the long-standing Hawai’ian cultural practice of extended family care. Moreover, HB 1830 rejects informed consent and best practice standards of child welfare such as the collection of a Continue Reading →