A bill making its way in the Legislature would give people who were adopted in our state access to their original birth certificates.
“Adoptees in Washington State currently don’t have the same rights as everybody else,” said the bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines. “The fact that many of them don’t have access to their original birth certificates is discriminatory. Nobody should be denied the right to know who they are and where they came from.”
Orwall knows what it’s like to be kept in the dark. She is an adoptee.
Washington began denying adult adoptees access to their records in the 1940s, a time when an unwed woman would face shame if she became pregnant and a wedded one would also face shame if she could not get pregnant. It was in this post-war America that the State of Washington, as well as many other states in the nation, began sealing adoption records and amending birth certificates to indicate adoptive parents as biological parents.
About five decades later, the law was amended to allow adult adoptees access to non-identifying information, such as nationality, ethnic background, race, education level at time of adoption, general physical appearance, religion, occupation, talents, hobbies, circumstances leading to the adoption, and medical and genetic history. Legislation also granted adult adoptees the ability to search for their birth family through a confidential intermediary.
The law was modified again in 1993. As it stands today, anyone adopted after October 1, 1993 can get a copy of their original birth certificate when they reach age 18, unless the birth parent filed an affidavit of nondisclosure.
But people adopted prior to October 1993 do not have access to their original birth certificate unless they get consent from the birth parent(s) or if they are granted access by the court.
“Some people have raised the issue that opening adoption records will result in negative consequences to the birth parents. But adult adoptees are not stalkers and there is no evidence of anything bad happening to birth parents in any of the eight states where adult adoptees have access to their records,” added Orwall.
House Bill 3028 would accomplish two major changes:
· Access to original birth certificates would be extended to people adopted prior to 1993; and
· Once the new law goes into effect, in October 2010, birth parents will no longer be able to file affidavits, but existing affidavits filed between 1993 and 2010 would still be in place.
Orwall stressed that the bill will be amended so that parents who relinquish their child for adoption after October 2010 will have the option of filling out a contact preference form as well as a medical history form.
When asked if she would access her records if the bill passes, Orwall said that she definitely would but, since she was born in Florida, this bill would not benefit her, “So, while I’m basically still in the dark about my origins, I am certain that this bill will come as a blessing for many, many people in Washington State.”
Eight states currently provide all adult adoptees with direct access to their original birth certificates: Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon and Tennessee.
HB 3028 will come up for a hearing in the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Jan. 28, at 10 a.m. in House Hearing Room A.
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