Bastard Nation Action Alert: Utah H345 restricted bill goes to Senate. Kill it now!

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Bastard Nation Action Alert

March 10, 2020

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Utah Adoptees need your help today!

HB 345 now in Senate

Kill it now!

Contains Redactions and DVs.

For the last few weeks, a confusing access bill, HB345, has lumbered through the halls of the Utah Legislature.

Introduced a little over a month ago, the bill has received no press, perhaps because the search terms are not “adoption,” “original birth certificates” or any related terms, but instead “personal records.”

HB345  originally allowed adult adoptees access to an “adoption document” –undefined– under certain circumstances. Not surprisingly, it included a mechanism for birthparents to “refuse adoptees access to the document,” though it did not call the mechanism a Disclosure Veto.  “Original Brith Certificate” was never mentioned. Later a lawyer/adoptee who had fought his way through Utah’s access labyrinth told us that “adoption document” under Utah law is legally defined as the “adoption file.” An “adoption file” request would go through the courts; the OBC through Vital Stats.

Things went really curious immediately.  Listen to this short recording of the sponsor’s remarks to the House Health and Human Services. Committee hearing. No testimony was taken. No Q&As offered. The bill was passed unanimously by disinterested members.

On February 28, an amendment was offered to strike birthparent consent /refusal clause for access making the bill “clean.” Whoa!

We knew it was too good to be true.

On March 9 a floor amendment was approved by the House that placed birthparent consent back into the bill  Moreover if a parent who appears on the OBC gives consent and the other listed parent refuses, or if deceased  (no mention of how death would be established) then that person’s name will be blacked out.  Today the bill was sent to the Senate. Since Utah’s legislative session closes on March 12, 2020, it’s on the fast track.

This bill needs to die.

Please drop a line to Utah Senators and ask them to oppose HB 345.  .There is no state interest in keeping original birth certificates sealed from adult adoptees to which they pertain. Nor does the state have a right or duty to mediate and oversee the personal relationships of adults. Those who claim a statutory right to parental anonymity through sealed records, as found in HB 345, promote statutory privilege and state favoritism. This is not a bill adoptees want or need.  Only unrestricted, unconditional OBC access is acceptable.

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