All Pawtucket All The Time

Shallcross Smith bill would allow adult adoptees access to their birth certificates

 STATE HOUSE – Rep. Mary Ann Shallcross Smith is sponsoring legislation to allow adult adoptees born in Rhode Island to obtain uncertified copies of their original birth certificates.

Currently in Rhode Island, when a child is adopted, he or she is issued an amended birth certificate listing his or her adoptive name and the names of his or her adoptive mother and father. The child’s original birth certificate is sealed after the final adoption decree has been made, preventing the adoptee from obtaining a copy of the original document.

“Adult adoptees deserve a better opportunity to learn about their own family history. It’s a matter of their personal health. There are so many situations in which a person’s family health history matters, and adult adoptees in Rhode Island have absolutely zero opportunity to learn anything about their inherited health conditions,” said Representative Shallcross Smith (D-Dist. 46, Lincoln, Pawtucket), whose stepson is adopted. “Allowing adults who were adopted to research their family history would allow them a chance to get a fuller picture of their health risks, which would allow them some opportunity for peace of mind.”

The legislation, which is in place in eight other states including Maine and New Hampshire, would allow adult adoptees to obtain a copy of their unaltered birth certificates by filling out a preadoption birth record application form. The bill would also permit a birth parent to express his or her preference regarding contact with the adoptee by filing a contact preference form with the registrar of vital records. Under the legislation, the birth parent would express desire for contact with his or her biological child in one of the three following ways: I would like to be contacted; I would like to be contacted but through an intermediary of my choosing, i.e. placing agency, personal friend, etc; or I do not want to be contacted. Birth parents would be permitted to change their preference for contact at any time by submitting an updated form.

The proposal, however, does not allow an adoptee or the general public any access to other documents, including counseling notes from work with a birth mother, discussions related to relationships, terminated pregnancies and court records of adoption hearings.

Critics of the current system say that the state has a long history of imposing secrecy on birth mothers whether they want it or not. Supporters of the legislation say the original purpose of sealing adoption records was not to prevent contact between adopted children and their birth parents, but to protect the confidentiality of those involved in adoptions from the stigmas of society at the time, which included shame over having or being an illegitimate child and the belief that those who adopt must be unable to conceive on their own.

The legislation is supported by the Rhode Island Adoption Coalition for Equality (T.R.A.C.E.), a grassroots effort dedicated to passing legislation allowing adult adoptees born in Rhode Island to have access to their original birth certificates. Members of T.R.A.C.E. believe that Rhode Island adoptees have been denied the human right granted to all other members of the state – to obtain an original copy of a birth certificate.

Current state law allows adoptees who are 21 or older to access only non-identifying biological information about themselves. However, those records are created at their birth, never to be updated again. T.R.A.C.E. argues that unless they have the ability to get updates on the health issues their birth families have experienced in the decades since their births, that information is of little use to adoptees.

“This is about giving adopted people the same chance at a healthy life that the rest of the population has,” said Representative Shallcross Smith. “Their original birth certificate holds the key to their personal health and history, and they, like everyone else, ought to have the right to access it.”