Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization
PO Box 4607
New Windsor, New York 12553-7845
bastards.org 614-795-6819 @BastardsUnite
____________
May 22, 2021
RE: B 2070. Adoptee right to Original Birth Certificate. Please vote Do Not Pass. Not inclusive
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 write today in opposition to HB 2070, a bill that limits OBC rights to current Arizona adoptees. We urge you to oppose the bill when it comes to the Senate Floor. This bill was considered dead, but has resurrected and is scheduled for a Senate Rules Committee hearing on Monday, May 24, 2021, so we are writing to you once again.
BN supported the original version of HB 2070, which would have restored the right of all Arizona-born adoptees to obtain a copy of their Original Birth Certificate at the age of majority with no restrictions or conditions. Unfortunately, the House gutted the purpose and meaning of the bill by amending it to (1) make it prospective only starting in 2022 and (2) specifically bar the vast majority of the state’s adoptees–those adopted between 1968-2021– from obtaining the state-held record of their births which belongs to them.
In practical terms, the law could not be used until 2040 long after any perceived controversy that might surround passage is dead.
Thousands of Arizona-born adoptees living today are ignored, shuttled aside, and left behind in the sealed and secret adoption system, to fight another battle on another day to re-secure their right to their own birth certificates.
Arizona’s mottled history of OBC Access
This is not the first time Arizona adoptees have had their OBC rights changed by legislative vagary. We advocate for OBC rights around the country, and historically Arizona’s laws are the most confusing and eccentric in the US:
- Before 1945: OBCs were open to the adoptee and the general public
- 1952: OBCs were closed to the public but still open to the adoptee.
- 1967: OBCs were sealed to all adoptees.
- 1997: OBCs were unsealed for a select few adoptees whose adoptions had been finalized 75 years ago or longer(!)
- 2004: OBCs were again sealed
This jumble of yes, no, maybe, and no again makes no sense, especially now in the era of openness in adoption practices, the unsealing of adoption records around the country, and of course, social media and the easy and cheap availability of online DNA testing.
Privacy v Anonymity
Unrestricted OBC access is not a “privacy” or “birthparent confidentiality” issue. “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.
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. Please remember that the OBCs of persons with established relationships with biological parents as in stepparent and foster adoptions are also sealed.
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.
Technology Makes Sealed OBCs Obsolete
Accessible low-cost commercial DNA testing, social media, and a large network of volunteer “search angels” that locate hidden information and histories for adoptees and their families make sealed birth records a relic of the past. Thousands of successful adoption searches happen each year—many in Arizona alone—making adoption secrecy virtually impossible. The minuscule number of birthparents or professionals who believe that restricted OBC/records access or no access equals adoption anonymity are greatly mistaken. Nearly all successful searches are done without the OBC and other court documents.
Conclusion
HB 2070 should be rejected as discriminatory. Adoptive status should not determine one’s right to a genuine, original birth certificate.
HB 2070 makes a right that every not-adopted Arizona-born citizen enjoys dependent on date of adoption finalization. The bill does not acknowledge much less restore the right of all Arizona-born adoptees to their state-held birth records. It is nothing more than a government favor bestowed on future generations. It serves no purpose other than to prolong the abrogation of the rights of the state’s adoptees to their own birth records.
Let lawmakers working with Arizona adoptees come back with a bill that acknowledges the right of all Arizona-born adoptees to their own state-generated and held birth and adoption records without restrictions or conditions.
HB 2070 needs to be pulled for further work. If it is not, please do the right thing and kill the bill. Vote Do Not Pass.
Thank you.
Sincerely yours,
Marley Greiner
