Adoptees get a break
They can get birth papers
ALBANY — It’s about to become a lot easier for adopted New Yorkers to learn about their past.
Starting this week, New York will allow adoptees to receive certified copies of their birth certificates when they turn 18, ensuring them the right to know who their biological parents are as well as valuable information about their family’s medical history.
The state is rolling out a website Monday with information about the change in law, which goes into effect Wednesday.
“Every person has the right to know where they come from, and this new law grants all New Yorkers the same unrestricted rights to their original birth records,” Gov. Cuomo said. “After years of being denied this basic human right, adoptees will finally be able to obtain critical information about their origins, family histories and medical backgrounds.”
The law also gives the adopted person’s lawful representative or their descendants access to their birth certificates if the adoptees are deceased, and removes a government agency’s ability to impose any restrictions on an individual’s attempt to obtain the information.
The state Health Department website instructs visitors to use an outside portal run by a company called Vitalchek to order the document. It can also be obtained through mail and phone requests.
For adoptees born in New York City, the state directs users to the city Heath Department website.
Previously, a birth certificate was sealed once an adoption was filed. For the records to be unsealed, an adoptee was forced to petition the courts and his or her biological parents, who had to consent.
Under the new law, sponsored by Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (DBrooklyn) and Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Queens), adopted people have unrestricted access to copies of their long-form birth certificate.
Advocates have been pushing for greater access to birth records for adoptees in the state for decades, and versions of the bill have languished in Albany under both Democratic and Republican control.
A 2017 variation of the bill, panned by advocates, was vetoed by Cuomo for being too restrictive.
Weprin, who has carried a version of the bill for nearly a decade and noted that the records have been under seal since 1938, said it was a “huge deal” to finally see adoptees have access to vital records.
“So many people have been waiting for so many years to get their original birth certificate,” Weprin said. “This is a huge deal. It’s something that adoptees have always felt that they’re missing … it’s almost like a human rights issue. Why should they, just because they were adopted, be denied something that everybody else can get?”