Bullet Points for Letter Writing

BULLET POINTS FOR LETTER WRITING

v Access to Original Birth Certificates (OBCs) is a civil rights issue.
Adopted people are the only people in the U.S. (besides those enrolled in the Federal Witness Protection Program) whose identities are legally changed in this manner. Adopted people are not being protected under the 14th amendment (equal protection): Simply because of the circumstances of our birth, we are being discriminated against.
v “Promises of lifetime of secrecy/privacy/confidentiality” is a myth.
Birth parents were never promised all of this, nor have any legal documents ever been produced that would prove such a concept. Further, adoption records were opened in Tennessee when the TN Supreme Court ruled that there was no Constitutional guarantee of a lifelong right to privacy.
v Current law does not provide “privacy”
Besides, the current law does not provide “privacy” anyway. Most adopted people are able to search and find without their adoption records, and are interested in obtaining them only as a matter of principle. As it stands, adopted people who search and find on their own have no way of knowing their birth parents’ desires regarding contact. HB770/SB364 actually provides more “protection” for birth parents since they will have the opportunity to make their wishes explicitly known.
v This is NOT a search issue
If it hasn’t been made clear already, accessing records is not about search and reunion. The internet has revolutionized the search process, and most people are able to search and find on their own. Further, birth records can be required for a number of reasons. For example, if an adopted person’s amended birth certificate is issued more than a year after their birth, it is difficult for them to obtain a passport…unless they have their original birth certificate! Currently, the standard reason a judge would allow an adopted person to open their records is “good cause”, ie: dire medical circumstances, possible genetic disorders, etc. However, deciding what is and is not “good cause” is up to each individual judge, and adopted people are often turned away at the door regardless of our reasons for wanting the records opened…no matter how medically important.
v Mutual Consent Reunion Registry (Central Adoption Registry: CAR) is inadequate.
State funding does not allow for any sort of meaningful advertising, and most people do not know it exists. Further, if a birth parent (or adoptee) is dead, incapacitated, or shamed into believing they do not have a right to register/search, registration will not happen. This does not mean that they do not want contact.
v Quality adoption practice supports giving adoptees access to birth records.
The Child Welfare League of America, generally accepted in social services to be the gold standard for program standards of practice, recognizes the need of adoptees to have birth information and encourages agencies to support this as well.
v Adoptees are bound by contracts made by others.
In adoption, an adoptee is expected to adhere for a lifetime to a verbal or implied, (never written), adoption contract to which they were not a participant.
v Historically, records were closed to protect adoptive families and birth families from the public, not each other.
Adoption records were open to all parties until 1931. At that time, the “Illegitimate” stamp was removed from birth certificates, and records were sealed to the public, but remained open to “parties interested and their attorneys”. In 1973 that adoption records were sealed to all parties, including those affected by the adoption. It was not until 1989 that language was used regarding “protection” of birth parents.
v Adopted people are not stalkers
Closed records maintain an environment of secrecy and shame, and perpetuate the idea that something “bad” has happened. Open records bring truth and honesty to the adoption system; they bring an end to ‘false advertising’. Adopted people want acknowledgement of a right that others take for granted, not to intrude in others’ lives. We were raised by our parents…but we want to know who we look like, share mannerisms with, share cultural heritage with, and were birthed to. We want to complete our story.
v MYTH: Giving adult adoptees access to their records will raise the abortion rate.
Both Alaska and Kansas give adult adoptees their original birth certificates. During the 1990s, Alaska has had over twice the per capita rate of adoptions as Texas, and Kansas’ per capita adoption rate has been 55% higher than Texas. The U.S., with mostly sealed records, has about 335 abortions per 1,000 live births. Kansas gives adoptees their original birth certificates at age 18 and reports an abortion rate of 165 per 1,000 live births in 1992. Texas seals adoption records and its abortion rate was 284 in 1992. Tennessee, Oregon (abortion rate decreased 7.2% in first 2 years of open records law), Alabama, Delaware, and New Hampshire all have given adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates.

Compiled by TxCARE/Texas Coalition for Adoption Resources & Education and
Katy Perkins