Adoptees in Florida should have right to see birth certificates

Just 100 years ago, state legislatures began passing laws to seal the birth certificates of children adopted at birth. By doing so, this created privacy for both birth and adoptive parents, and added an air of legitimacy to children born out of wedlock. States then issued amended birth certificates so that adopted children, as they aged, could prove their eligibility to get driver’s licenses and passports, and also be able to register to vote.

Much has changed. Out-of-wedlock births do not have the same stigma, and more and more people who adopt have what they call “open adoptions.”

Adopted children, such as me, who become adults now question laws that block us from gaining access to our records. For this reason, I filed HB 257 this year that would allow adopted children to be able to get a copy of their Original Birth Certificate (OBC) at 18. This is part of a national trend, and more than 20 states have changed laws to accommodate adult adoptees just within the past 12 years.

As simple as this sounds, there has been opposition in every state. The most common are that the privacy of the birth parents will be at risk, adoption rates will go down and abortion rates will go up. In every state where the law has been changed, these arguments were debunked. Some states now allow adoptees to obtain their birth certificate as easily as non-adoptees, while in other states there are restrictions, such as allowing birth parents to be able to remove or redact their names from a requested certificate. Law changes have been signed by both Democratic and Republican governors.

This year, the OBC bill in Florida did not get a hearing. Opposition groups in most states have generally been those in the business of adoption who may fear loss of control of the search process of adults who want to locate birth parents or birth parents searching for the children they gave up. Often it is attorneys and/or organizations in the adoption business fearing loss of revenue. In my first year promoting this bill, there were no statistics to show that states that have opened access to birth certificates have fewer requests for adoptions or more abortions.

It is time for Florida to join the states that now recognize that adult children of adoption should be entitled to the same rights as all citizens.