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HB1039–Original Birth Certificate Access
Maryland House Judiciary Committee
February 20, 2020
Submitted Testimony in Support
Submitted by
Marley E. Greiner. Executive Chair
Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization is the largest adoptee civil rights organization in the United States. We support only full unrestricted access for all adopted persons, to their original birth certificates (OBC) and related documents. We are a core partner with Capitol Coalition for Adoption Rights.
Bastard Nation and its members in Maryland have worked in Maryland since the late 1990s to secure a change in OBC/adoption record access laws that restore the right of all the state’s adoptees, not just the select few as under current law who are currently forced to navigate a cumbersome, difficult, and insulting gauntlet of restrictions, arbitrary procedures, and naysayers, to receive their own OBC,s which are rightfully theirs, without restriction.
We are happy, therefore, to support passage of HB1039. an inclusive bill that restores that right of Original Birth Certificate access to all adopted Marylanders with no restrictions or conditions at the age of 18.
We urge you to support this bill and pass it into law.
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Unrestricted OBC access is not a “privacy” or “birthparent confidentiality” issue. In fact, “privacy” “confidentiality,” and” anonymity” are not synonymous either legally or linguistically.
There is no evidence in any state that records were sealed to “protect” the reputation or “privacy” of biological parents who relinquished children for adoption. On the contrary, records were sealed to protect the reputations of “bastard children” and to protect adoptive families from birthparent interference.
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Courts have ruled that adoption anonymity does not exist. (Doe v Sundquist, et. al., 943 F. Supp. 886, 893-94 (M.D. Tenn. 1996) and Does v. State of Oregon, 164 Or. App. 543, 993 P.2d 833, 834 (1999). Laws change constantly, and the state, lawyers, social workers, and others were never in a position to promise anonymity in adoption. In fact, in the over 50 years of the adoptee equality battle, not one document has been submitted anywhere that promises or guarantees
sealed records and an anonymity “right” to birthparents.
Identifying information about surrendering parents often appears in court documents given to adoptive parents who can at any point give that information to the adopted person. (In some states adoptive parents, at the time of the adoption order, can petition the court to keep the record open.) The names of surrendering parents are published in legal ads. Courts can
open “sealed records” for “good cause” without birthparent consent or even knowledge. Critically, the OBC is sealed at the time of adoption finalization, not surrender. If a child is not adopted, the record is never sealed. If a child is adopted, but the adoption is overturned or disrupted, the OBC is unsealed.
The influential American Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys in 2018 passed a monumental resolution in support of adoptees’ right to full access to our OBC, court, and agency records.
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Legislation needs to catch up with technological reality. We are well into the 21st century. The information superhighway grows wider and longer each day, and adoptees and their birth and adoptive families are riding it, utilizing the Internet, social media, inexpensive and accessible DNA testing services, and a large network of volunteer “search angels” to locate their government-hidden information and histories. Thousands of successful adoption searches happen each year—many in Maryland alone—making adoption secrecy virtually impossible. The minuscule number of birthparents or so-called “professionals” who believe that restricted OBC/records access or no access equals adoption anonymity are greatly mistaken. The fact is, nearly all successful searches are done without the OBC and other court documents.
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OBC access is not about search and reunion. It is about the right to one’s own state-held birth record. Rights are for all, not some. Clearly, Maryland’s burdensome law discriminates against the state’s adoptees .
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 promote statutory privilege and state favoritism. HB1039 creates equal birth certificate access for all Maryland adoptees. It treats the state’s adoptees as equal with the not-adopted, It reflects the simple inclusive, unrestricted access process that ten states have on the books (Kansas, Alaska, Oregon, Alabama, Colorado, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and New York,
New York’s 4o-year battle for OBC access ended when on January 15, OBCs were opened to all New York adoptee s upon request without restriction. In only three days, over 3,600 adoptees filed for their record of birth. The bill that unsealed records was passed 196-12.
Please support Maryland in being a leader in adoptee equality and adoption reform. Return unrestricted and unconditional OBC access tol al Maryland adoptees. When HB1039 comes up for a vote, please vote DO PASS and urge the bill be sent to the floor ASAP for passage. It’s the right thing to do!
New York Adoptee Rights Coalition
The MD bill in question is HB1039, not 1030. Please correct. thanks!
Oops.. Thanks. FUmble Fingers. Fixed.