Hochul pushed to ease rules making adoption difficult for NY couples: ‘They’re putting children last’
Adoption advocates are turning up the heat on Gov. Kathy Hochul to change a restrictive policy they say makes it difficult for New Yorkers to adopt from out-of-state birth mothers.
“The policy puts New York families at a great disadvantage,” said Ronnie Oliva, who with her husband Michael, recently adopted a baby girl from another state.
Ronnie Oliva said New York’s adoption policy is anti-child and anti-woman.
“They’re putting children last. You have to put children in loving homes,” said Ronnie Oliva, calling the process to adopt “emotionally draining.”
The Olivas formed the New York Adoption Coalition along with former US Rep. Max Rose, also an adoptive parent.
Hochul’s Office of Children and Family Services imposed a new edict Jan. 5 that limits the financial support adoptive families can give to out-of-state birth mothers.
Previously, New York adoptive parents were allowed to give more financial support to birth mothers from other states — based on the less restrictive rules on compensation in those states.
But the new restriction — which also affects New York birth mothers — says financial help can only be made 60 days before the baby is born and 30 days after birth, severely hindering help for the biological moms at crucial times of need, advocates said.
“The whole adoption process in New York is extremely hard and this policy makes it harder,’ Michael Oliva said.
Ronnie Oliva noted that many birth mothers give up their child for adoption because they’re financially struggling or in dire circumstances.
“These birth mothers need help,” Ronnie Oliva said.
Veteran adoption advocate Lisa Goldberg personally appealed to Hochul in a Jan. 29 letter to repeal the rule put in place by OCFS Agency Director Shelly Fiebich last month that has had a “devastating impact on New York prospective adoptive parents.”
“The current change in policy has thrown a horrific chill over the adoption plans of multitudes of New Yorkers working with expectant mothers from outside our state. There is not even a grandfather clause allowing for current existing adoption plans to continue to move forward as previously agreed upon,” Goldberg, who also is the Olivas’ attorney, told the governor.
“This leaves many NY adoptive parents unable to complete a placement and bring home a baby despite having worked for months with the birth mother and having paid her living expenses.”
Each state has an Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, created to protect all parties in adoption contracts: the birth mother, adoptive parents and child.
The compact aims to prevent child trafficking and the office vets and approves every private and agency adoption when a child is born in one state and brought to another by adoptive parents.
“We have no quarrel with the important job that ICPC carries out in each and every state,” Goldberg said. “However, it is absolutely unreasonable and unacceptable for NY ICPC to tie NY adoptive parents’ hands behind their backs in this way, causing them to be at such a disadvantage and to lose out on out-of state adoption plans.”
She called the state’s new policy of “disregarding” court orders from other states regarding fees paid to birth expectant mothers “unconscionable.”
“We need more compassion and flexibility extended by those who work with adoptive families on all sides of this equation,” Goldberg said in her appeal to Hochul.
The Post reached out to Hochul’s office for comment.
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