New Hampshire
Sealed: Unknown
Unsealed: 2005
Access Status: unsealed
- Unrestricted and conditional access for all adoptees 18 of age and older
Through a special arrangement with the Adoptee Rights Law Center, Bastard Nation is linking our individual state pages to ARLC state access law links and summaries. In addition. our state pages include information specific to Bastard Nation actions and activities in each state.ead about current OBC access.
Read about current OBC access legislation with links to current and past years bills at our”Keep Informed” legislative pages (middle sidebar.)
- Access law and extended summary
- Text of SB335
- New Hampshire Vital Records adoption records FAQ and order forms
- New Hampshire Legislature
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NEW HAMPSHIRE RESTORES ADOPTEE RIGHTS!
Adult adoptees born and adopted in New Hampshire regained access to their own original, pre-adoption birth certificates following the enactment of Senate Bill 335 by the New Hampshire General Court. The new law took effect on January 1, 2005, and allowed adult adoptees to receive copies of their original birth certificates upon request, without restriction. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Lou D’Allesandro (D-District 20), led the successful legislative campaign and resisted attempts to place restrictions on the legislation, which would have resulted in much more limited access by adult adoptees to their own original birth certificates.
Rep. Janet Allen (R- Dist. 31 and member of the BN Executive Committee) and the Deputy Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Rep. Michael Whalley (R-Dist. 31), championed the legislation alongside Sen. D’Allesandro. 
Rep. Allen, an adult adoptee and member of the Legislative Committee of Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization, made an impassioned plea for passage on the House floor, citing the fundamental fairness of treating adopted citizens the same as all others with regard to accessing their own government-held birth certificates.
Senate Bill 335 was originally drafted by Paul Schibbelhute, a birth father residing in New Hampshire and member of the New Hampshire grassroots group which supported the legislation alongside a partnership of individuals and national organizations including the American Adoption Congress and Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization.
ADDRESS TO ADOPTEE RIGHTS SUPPORTERS DELIVERED BY MARLEY GREINER, EXECUTIVE CHAIR OF BN, IN CONCORD, NH ON JANUARY 3, 2005
Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization is happy and proud to be here in Concord today to share in the celebration as the Great State of New Hampshire joins pro-adoptee Kansas, Alaska, Oregon and Alabama in restoring the right to records and identity to those born and adopted in the state.
We would especially like to thank Sen. Lou D’Allesandro for his vision and perseverance, his refusal to cave-in to compromise, his belief that ALL those born and adopted in New Hampshire should be treated with equal respect, dignity, and rights, not as dirty little secrets locked up by the state. If every state had a Senator D, records would be open for all of us in just a few years. We also thank Rep. Michael Whalley and our own Rep. Janet Allen, for all their support and work and without whom none of us would be here today. And we certainly thank “civilians” Paul Shibbelhute of the American Adoption Conference, and Donna Chagnon for their fortitude, belief in open records and for the innumerable hours put into the road to victory. Finally, thanks to William Bolton, director of Vital Records and his staff for their gracious diligence in completing the implementation of the law. Because of you all, and others whose names I don’t know, adopted persons throughout the United States are one state closer to total victory. You have all made history!
Rights are one size fits all. No matter the temptation, there is no longer any reason to accept compromise legislation that divides the adoptee class and simply doles out records to some and none to others. For those states, then who have not yet achieved victory, New Hampshire serves as an example of what can be accomplished without compromising principles.
In California yesterday, in response to Fox’s new reality series Who’s Your Daddy, which premieres tonight, adoptee rights activists under the banner of the Adoptee Rights Organizing Project and BN staged the Honk If You’re My Daddy! action at Fox TV in Century City. We skewered Fox and exposed the hypocrisy of those in the adoption industry whose doom and gloom over the show bellied their own complicity in maintaining the sealed records system that creates the conditions for the very show they condemn. The protesters in California salute the free adoptees of New Hampshire.
For more information about the New Hampshire open records campaign go to our website www.bastards.org and click on the New Hampshire news on the front page. We recently updated our New Hampshire page, and you’ll now find a large collection of documents including news stories, committee testimony, and pictures, which we’ll continue to update.
Bastard Nation welcomes New Hampshire into the winner’s circle!
Marley Elizabeth Greiner
Exe. Chair, Bastard Nation
SB sponsor of SB335 Sen. D and House Speaker Mike Whalley celebrate with Janet Allen and members of the SB335 coalition, January 3, 2005
Rep. Janet Allen with husband David becomes first to receive her OBC under HB335, January 3, 2005
Bastard Nation Statements on SB 335:
- Bastard Nation statement on House passage of SB 335, April 30, 2004
- Bastard Nation statement on enactment of SB 335, May 11, 2004
SUPPORT for SB335
- Testimony in support of SB 335, Marley Elizabeth Greiner, Exe. Chair Bastard Nation, April 6, 2004
- Letter of support for SB335 from Holt International, April 28, 2004
- Testimony in support of SB335, Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
- Testimony in support of SB335, Elizabeth J. Samuels, Associate Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
OPPOSITION TO SB335
- National Council for Adoption analysis of SB 335, Thomas Atwood, President, National Council for Adoption
- National Council for Adoption statement on enactment of SB 335, May 12, 2004
- Citizens for Life Action Alert against SB 335
SB 335 IN THE NEWS
- Nashua Telegraph, February 1, 2004. Endorsement: Adoption measure would be fair to all
- Manchester Union Times, February 2, 2004. Paid Ad in Support of Open Records for Adult Adoptees (paid archives)
- Concord Monitor, February 17, 2004. Bill says adoptees have right to know; law would give adults birth certificates; opponents say parents’ privacy violated
- Concord Monitor, February 20, 2004. Letter: No guarantee of lifelong secrecy, Elizabeth J. Samuels
- Concord Monitor, February 20, 2004. Letter: Extreme denial, Stacie Byrd
- Concord Monitor, February 20, 2004. Letter: The cruel hoax of closed adoption, Donna Chagnon
- Manchester Union Times, March 11, 2004. Endorsement: Ought to Pass: A few new laws for NH (paid archives)
- Manchester Union Times, March 12, 2004/ Bill giving future adoptees access to birth records moves ahead (paid archives)
- Concord Monitor, April 7, 2004. Birth papers hearing elicits personal tales; bill proposes access to certificates by adoptees
- Portsmouth Herald, April 21, 2004. Endorsement: Adoptees should have right to know about their genetics
- Manchester Union Leader, April 23, 2004/ Another View: Pro: Treat adoptees as adults, Steve Varnum, guest columnist (paid archives)
- Manchester Union Leader, April 23, 2004. Another View: Let parents be anonymous, Thomas Atwood, guest columnist (paid archives)
- New Hampshire Public Radio, May 7, 2004. The Exchange: Adoption Issues with Rep. Janet Allen’s (audio download)
- WMUR, Channel 9, Manchester, May 11, 2004. Bill allowing adoptees access to birth records will become law
Manchester Union Leader, May 12, 2004/ Adoption information law enacted (paid archive)
Foster’s Daily Democrat, November 18, 2004/ Law boosts rights for adoptees
- PoliticsNH.com, December 19, 2004/ The complete story on opening birth records, Sen. Lou D’Allesandro
- December 20, 2004. Law change just first step for adult adoptees
- Women’s eNews, December 29, 2004. Commentary: Birthmothers, adoptees have right to records by Lorraine Dusky
- WMUR-TV, Manchester, December 30, 2004. New law allows adoptees to get birth certificates
Updated November 2018
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