With legislative sessions winding down, four states are still active with OBC access bills. Three bills are clean. One, in North Carolina, is simply bizarre.
OBC Access Bills: Update
A list of OBC access bills that are still alive in the 2017 session, plus bills that may have come and gone and are now either dead or barely hanging on.
West Virginia
West Virginia does not provide adult adoptees with unrestricted access to their original birth certificates. A court order, requiring good cause, is required before the release of an OBC.
North Carolina
North Carolina law denies adult adoptees unrestricted access to their own original birth certificates. A court order is required for the release of any identifying information, including an OBC.
Connecticut
Only adult adoptees whose adoptions were finalized after October 1, 1983, have unrestricted access to their birth certificates. All other adult adoptees must obtain a court order—contingent upon the consent or death of birth parents— to obtain their original birth certificates.