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Last updated on August 1, 2018

Me and States and Stuff

I’ve tweaked things in the the last week. Enough tweaks that it’s now worth highlighting where we stand and also what I’m working on. Let’s start with the United States of OBC. Here are the current numbers, along with an updated map (click on the map if you want an interactive version):

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I log things as I change them, so you can always check the changelog first if you are wondering what I have recently modified. The latest tweaks, however, include:

Arkansas

Arkansas’ new law went into full effect today, August 1, 2018,. Arkansas is now listed as a compromised state instead of restricted. Why? I explain it in more detail here (and a summary of the law is here), but essentially the new law allows birthparents to redact their names from the OBC. Plus, it costs $100 to request the “adoption file,” which should contain the OBC.

Indiana

After a looooong implementation period, Indiana’s new law is now fully stumbling forward. While this means my listing for Indiana has changed from restricted to compromised, it’s not an overall great improvement. Indiana has preserved all sorts of discriminatory tools, including a corrupt contact preference form, disclosure vetoes, and zombie vetoes. You can get more information about how the new Indiana law works here (and you can get the updated law summary here).

Maryland

I’ve struggled with how to classify Maryland. It’s got a date-based discriminatory system that allows those adopted on or after January 1, 2000, to obtain their OBCS, so long as the adoptee is 21 and a birthparent does not veto disclosure. In practical terms—given the date of adoption and the age you need to be to request the OBC—there are so few qualifying adoptees that Maryland is essentially restricted. Nevertheless, I’ve moved Maryland into the compromised pile, for the simple reason that the law is in effect and, despite the vast majority of adoptees getting bubkes from the law, there may be a half-dozen adoptees out there who actually qualify to request their OBCs. So, consider it compromised.

Pennsylvania

This is a minor change to add a fancy graduation cap icon () to reflect that Pennsylvania’s new law requires an adoptee to graduate from high school, obtain a GED, or be legally withdrawn from school. Luckily, Pennsylvania has so far interpreted this requirement to apply only to adoptees between the ages of 18 and 21.

Latest Legislative Efforts

I’ve also updated the legislative maps to reflect how the sessions have essentially ended (though two states—Michigan and North Carolina—seem never to adjourn and I believe bills in those states are still technically active but realistically dead). Here’s the current map and a key to that map (you can also always find it here).

Active
Did not pass
Enacted
2018 Legislative Action Placeholder
2018 Legislative Action

House Bill 1713. Represenative Don Phillips initially introduced two bills (HB1713 and HB1714) that purport to change who can request an original birth certificate and who can request identifying information from a court. Both bills upon introduction were deeply flawed, with provisions that did not fully make sense, particularly in the context of adoption and access to original birth certificates. The Senate and House ultimately amended the bills to clarify certain issues, and the legislature passed HB1713, which expands access to an original birth certificate to descendants of adoptees. It has been signed by the Missouri governor and will take effect on August 28, 2018. HB1714, however, did not make it out of committee. More info/update.

S7631B/A9959AB. The New York Adoptee Rights Coalition, of which Adoptee Rights Law is a partner, worked to enact this bill this session. It is a clean bill with an unrestricted right of adoptees and their descendants to obtain an OBC. The legislature adjourned on June 20, 2018, without taking up the bill for vote---it remained stuck in committee in both chambers. Go to NYARC • Join the Efforts

House Bill 823. This bill would allow access only to adoptees who are at least 40 years of age who can prove the identities of birth parents. It passed unanimously in the NC House but it has been sitting in a senate committee now for more than a year. Nevertheless, that committee has aggressively begun to work through its backlog of bills, hearing bills nearly every day of session. I expect the committee to bring up H823 this session.

Massachusetts: H.1163/S.1195. A fourteen-word bill that assures equality for all adult adoptees in Massachusetts by eliminating restrictions based on an adoptee's date of adoption. A joint committee reported the bill out favorably, and the bill has been referred to a second committee. Massachusetts has a two-year legislative calendar beginning in odd years, so the bills are still in active in the Massachusetts legislative process. The formal session ended on July 31, 2018, without passage of the bill. Efforts are ongoing at OBCforMA, best accessed on Facebook.

HB 357. House Bill 357 (and companion bill S576) failed to receive a hearing and did not advance in the 2018 session. HB357 would have created three classes of adult adoptees: those adopted after July 1, 2018, those adopted before June 30, 1977, and those adopted betwen 1977 and 2018. For those adopted after July 1, 2018, the adoptee may obtain the OBC at age 18. For everyone else, you either have to wait 40 years after the adoption, know the name of a birth parent, or know that your birth parent is deceased or "presumed to be deceased." You can also obtain a court order. A set of companion clean bills were also filed but those were ostensibly being controlled by the sponsor of HB357. All bills are dead for the session and do not carry over to the next session.The Truth About Florida • Factchecking HB357

HB159. An overhaul of Georgia adoption law that modifies adoptee rights to identifying information, lowering the age to request identifying information from 21 to 18 and eliminating an explicit "good cause" standard for petitioning the court for court or department records. The bill also modifies the procedures followed for intercountry adoptions. It does not change current Georgia law on direct access to an original birth certificate. The bill has been passed and signed by the governor. It becomes effective September 1, 2018.

SB2885. Another attempt to pass legislation that would require an adult adoptee to wait until 40 years after an adoption before being able to request the original birth certificate. It died in committee fifteen days after being introducted.

SF1284. This is a bill carried over from the prior 2017 session and, given the short session in Minnesota in 2018, it is not expected to move at all in the legislature. The bill would remove date-based inequalities and add due process rights to Minnesota's current complicated confidential intermediary (CI) system of access. As of March 22, 2018, the bill is considered dead for this session.

HF2157. What looks like a straightforward clean OBC access bill is instead a bill that corrupts the contact preference form and turns the lack of filing a CPF into a birthparent disclosure veto. It was introduced early in the 2018 session but adoptee rights advocates already consider the bill dead. A Facebook page exists for adoptee rights issues in Iowa and it is following issues in the state.

HB5408. Access Connecticut has been working to get this bill raised by committee during the Connecticut short session, and it paid off: a bill has now been introduced. HB5408 would remove date-based restrictions currently in Connecticut law, which limits the rights of pre-1983 adoptees to obtain an OBC. The Judiciary Committee and the House Appropriations Committee each reported the bill out favorably but it did not ultimately pass out of the House before the session adjourned on May 9, 2018.

HB4864/4865 Two linked bills that will provide the right of former foster youth to investigative files and birth records if parental rights of the child were terminated by the court or relinquished through a parent's plea agreement. Would apply to former foster youth who were later adopted. The bills have received little attention to date in the Michigan legislature. In addition, the primary House sponsor is term-limited and also lost in a primary for a state senate seat. He will not be returning to the Michigan legislature.

SB392. SB392 links the release of an original birth certificate to use of the Louisiana voluntary adoption registry. Release of the OBC requires consent of a birthparent, and redaction of information is required if any birthparent objects to release. The bill also calls for a national awareness campaign and appears to give birth siblings the power to prohibit release of the OBC. It was set for hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee A on April 24, but its sponsor deferred action on the bill after hearing from advocates in opposition to it. It is believed the bill is now deferred for the session and the sponsor will convene interested parties to work on modified legislation after the legislature adjourns.

H.3775. Clean bill was introduced in 2017 with numerous sponsors and was thought dead in committee. After nearly a year sitting in a subcommittee, it was reported out with a dirty prospective only amendment (OBC access upon request only for those adopted after 2018). The House then amended it again to add the requiement of birth parent consent for the release of an OBC.The Senate amended the bill to lower the age to request the OBC to 18 but otherwise maintained required consent of a birthparent to release the OBC and only for adoptions finalized after July 1, 2019. It passed both chambers unanimously and was signed by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on May 17, 2018. It becomes effective July 1, 2019. An analysis of the bill is here.

HB1. A large adoption/foster care bill that moved quickly through the legislature and which Governor Matt Bevin signed on April 13, 2018. For intercountry adoptions, it removes the phrase "not evidence of United States citizenship" from birth certificates for adoptions completed in Kentucky and for which an OBC from the country of origin is not available. The bill also creates a putative father's registry and allows certified copies of a father's registration to be obtained by the child and others. The primary focus of the bill is also to create various committees to study privatization of all foster care and and to study "performance-based contracting for licensed child-caring facilities and child-placing agencies in the Commonwealth."

House Bill 1713. Represenative Don Phillips initially introduced two bills (HB1713 and HB1714) that purport to change who can request an original birth certificate and who can request identifying information from a court. Both bills upon introduction were deeply flawed, with provisions that did not fully make sense, particularly in the context of adoption and access to original birth certificates. The Senate and House ultimately amended the bills to clarify certain issues, and the legislature passed HB1713, which expands access to an original birth certificate to descendants of adoptees. It has been signed by the Missouri governor and will take effect on August 28, 2018. HB1714, however, did not make it out of committee. More info/update.

S7631B/A9959AB. The New York Adoptee Rights Coalition, of which Adoptee Rights Law is a partner, worked to enact this bill this session. It is a clean bill with an unrestricted right of adoptees and their descendants to obtain an OBC. The legislature adjourned on June 20, 2018, without taking up the bill for vote---it remained stuck in committee in both chambers. Go to NYARC • Join the Efforts

House Bill 823. This bill would allow access only to adoptees who are at least 40 years of age who can prove the identities of birth parents. It passed unanimously in the NC House but it has been sitting in a senate committee now for more than a year. Nevertheless, that committee has aggressively begun to work through its backlog of bills, hearing bills nearly every day of session. I expect the committee to bring up H823 this session.

Massachusetts: H.1163/S.1195. A fourteen-word bill that assures equality for all adult adoptees in Massachusetts by eliminating restrictions based on an adoptee's date of adoption. A joint committee reported the bill out favorably, and the bill has been referred to a second committee. Massachusetts has a two-year legislative calendar beginning in odd years, so the bills are still in active in the Massachusetts legislative process. The formal session ended on July 31, 2018, without passage of the bill. Efforts are ongoing at OBCforMA, best accessed on Facebook.

HB 357. House Bill 357 (and companion bill S576) failed to receive a hearing and did not advance in the 2018 session. HB357 would have created three classes of adult adoptees: those adopted after July 1, 2018, those adopted before June 30, 1977, and those adopted betwen 1977 and 2018. For those adopted after July 1, 2018, the adoptee may obtain the OBC at age 18. For everyone else, you either have to wait 40 years after the adoption, know the name of a birth parent, or know that your birth parent is deceased or "presumed to be deceased." You can also obtain a court order. A set of companion clean bills were also filed but those were ostensibly being controlled by the sponsor of HB357. All bills are dead for the session and do not carry over to the next session.The Truth About Florida • Factchecking HB357

HB159. An overhaul of Georgia adoption law that modifies adoptee rights to identifying information, lowering the age to request identifying information from 21 to 18 and eliminating an explicit "good cause" standard for petitioning the court for court or department records. The bill also modifies the procedures followed for intercountry adoptions. It does not change current Georgia law on direct access to an original birth certificate. The bill has been passed and signed by the governor. It becomes effective September 1, 2018.

SB2885. Another attempt to pass legislation that would require an adult adoptee to wait until 40 years after an adoption before being able to request the original birth certificate. It died in committee fifteen days after being introducted.

SF1284. This is a bill carried over from the prior 2017 session and, given the short session in Minnesota in 2018, it is not expected to move at all in the legislature. The bill would remove date-based inequalities and add due process rights to Minnesota's current complicated confidential intermediary (CI) system of access. As of March 22, 2018, the bill is considered dead for this session.

HF2157. What looks like a straightforward clean OBC access bill is instead a bill that corrupts the contact preference form and turns the lack of filing a CPF into a birthparent disclosure veto. It was introduced early in the 2018 session but adoptee rights advocates already consider the bill dead. A Facebook page exists for adoptee rights issues in Iowa and it is following issues in the state.

HB5408. Access Connecticut has been working to get this bill raised by committee during the Connecticut short session, and it paid off: a bill has now been introduced. HB5408 would remove date-based restrictions currently in Connecticut law, which limits the rights of pre-1983 adoptees to obtain an OBC. The Judiciary Committee and the House Appropriations Committee each reported the bill out favorably but it did not ultimately pass out of the House before the session adjourned on May 9, 2018.

HB4864/4865 Two linked bills that will provide the right of former foster youth to investigative files and birth records if parental rights of the child were terminated by the court or relinquished through a parent's plea agreement. Would apply to former foster youth who were later adopted. The bills have received little attention to date in the Michigan legislature. In addition, the primary House sponsor is term-limited and also lost in a primary for a state senate seat. He will not be returning to the Michigan legislature.

SB392. SB392 links the release of an original birth certificate to use of the Louisiana voluntary adoption registry. Release of the OBC requires consent of a birthparent, and redaction of information is required if any birthparent objects to release. The bill also calls for a national awareness campaign and appears to give birth siblings the power to prohibit release of the OBC. It was set for hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee A on April 24, but its sponsor deferred action on the bill after hearing from advocates in opposition to it. It is believed the bill is now deferred for the session and the sponsor will convene interested parties to work on modified legislation after the legislature adjourns.

H.3775. Clean bill was introduced in 2017 with numerous sponsors and was thought dead in committee. After nearly a year sitting in a subcommittee, it was reported out with a dirty prospective only amendment (OBC access upon request only for those adopted after 2018). The House then amended it again to add the requiement of birth parent consent for the release of an OBC.The Senate amended the bill to lower the age to request the OBC to 18 but otherwise maintained required consent of a birthparent to release the OBC and only for adoptions finalized after July 1, 2019. It passed both chambers unanimously and was signed by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on May 17, 2018. It becomes effective July 1, 2019. An analysis of the bill is here.

HB1. A large adoption/foster care bill that moved quickly through the legislature and which Governor Matt Bevin signed on April 13, 2018. For intercountry adoptions, it removes the phrase "not evidence of United States citizenship" from birth certificates for adoptions completed in Kentucky and for which an OBC from the country of origin is not available. The bill also creates a putative father's registry and allows certified copies of a father's registration to be obtained by the child and others. The primary focus of the bill is also to create various committees to study privatization of all foster care and and to study "performance-based contracting for licensed child-caring facilities and child-placing agencies in the Commonwealth."

The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018, federal legislation related to citizenship and intercountry adoptees, is still active. You can find details about ACA18 on the DC map here.

New and Continuing Projects

I continue to handle numerous state court cases as well as complicated citizenship issues involving intercountry adoptees. On top of that, however, I’m working on a number of projects, including:

  • Compiling the statutes that ultimately sealed OBCs from adoptees in each state. That is, determining the year and the law in each state that made OBCs unavailable to adult adoptees;
  • Working on a book-length project that will compile all the OBC laws from each state in a printed form, along with a flowchart of each state to show how the law actually works. I may seek Kickstarter or other funding to make this a reality, so stay tuned for that;
  • I continue to work on legislative efforts in a few states, including New York and the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition. I’m talking with national and state advocates about additional united efforts in other states, led by adoptees and advocates in those states.

As always, I continue to learn. Despite wading neck-deep into adoptee rights activism, I still learn something new everyday and thank everyone who has the patience to answer questions when something doesn’t quite make sense to me. I also learn a great deal from the dozens of inquiries I get each month, some of which lead to full-out investigations but many of which end up in a short email exchange. Keep them coming.

Filed Under: Latest News

Gregory D. Luce

I am a Minnesota lawyer, DC-born adoptee, and the founder of Adoptee Rights Law Center PLLC. I've been practicing law in Minnesota state and federal courts since 1993. I also have a sense of humor.

Get Involved with Adoptees United Inc.

Logo of Adoptees United Inc.Did you find this post interesting? Then get involved nationally with Adoptees United Inc., a national tax-exempt non-profit organization dedicated to securing equality for all adult adopted people in the US. Find out more here, and join me and others in working for equality.

Did I Miss Something?

I work hard to get the laws and facts straight in every state---and to keep them regularly updated. If you see something that's not quite right or doesn't fit your experience, let me know with either a quick comment or an email.

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Betty E Falknor says

    August 2, 2018 at 4:39 pm

    Thank you on behalf of all adoptees.

    Reply
  2. Theresa F Honeycutt says

    October 5, 2018 at 10:29 am

    I am the daughter of a deceased adoptee….my mother passed away in 2011 and never got the chance to obtain her OBC here in NC….she was placed for adoption August 21 , 1940 in Guilford County NC through the Childrens Home Society of NC…..I have recieved Non-Identifing information from them already….Im pretty sure her biological parents are deceased by now……how would I as her living heir/daighter obtain a copy of her OBC ?

    Reply

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Adoptee Rights Law Center

The Adoptee Rights Law Center PLLC is an adoptee-focused legal practice founded by Gregory Luce, a Minnesota lawyer and D.C.-born adoptee.

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Legal representation limited to issues involving Minnesota law and federal immigration law.

Latest Posts

  • Why I Changed Hawaii’s Status
  • What Happens When You Question Adoption
  • Before You Start Spouting Off About Haiti, Amy Coney Barrett, and the ‘Beauty’ of Adoption
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Adoptee Rights Law Center PLLC
PO Box 19561
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Legal representation limited to issues involving Minnesota law and federal immigration law.

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I also monitor federal legislation related to intercountry adoptees.

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Gregory D. Luce
PO Box 19561
Minneapolis Minnesota 55419
T: (612) 221-3947
E: [email protected]

Legal representation limited to issues involving Minnesota law and federal immigration law.

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