Group Hopes To Change Connecticut’s Adoption Laws

MIDDLEBURY — The public is invited to the first meeting, on February 4, of Access Connecticut, a grassroots effort dedicated to passing legislation allowing adult adoptees born in Connecticut access to their original birth certificates (OBC).

The meeting will start at 1 pm at the Middlebury Public Library.

In the State of Connecticut an adoptee’s original birth certificate is sealed after the Final Adoption Decree has been made, preventing the adoptee from obtaining a copy of his/her original birth certificate. Members of Access Connecticut believe that Connecticut adoptees have been denied the human right that all other residents of Connecticut have — the right to obtain copies of their original, unamended birth certificates from vital records. Members note it is their history, it is their origin, and they have the human right to that information.

Legislation similar to that supported by Access Connecticut has precedents in a number of states. On January 1, 2005, New Hampshire began allowing adult adoptees born in New Hampshire to obtain noncertified copies of their original birth certificates. New Hampshire became the seventh state in the US to allow adult adoptees access to their original birth certificate along with Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Kansas, Oregon, and Tennessee.

The New Hampshire Legislation respects the rights of adult adoptees to obtain their original birth certificates, as well as the rights of birth parents to express their preferences about contact from their biological children. Access Connecticut recommends the following options be available to Connecticut’s adult adoptees and birth parents:

Adoptees can request a noncertified copy of their original birth certificate by filling out a Preadoption Birth Record Application Form. The new law will allow a birth parent to fill out a Contact Preference Form to express his/her preference about contact with his/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., the placing agency, personal friend, etc.

I do not want to be contacted.

If a birth parent chooses not to be contacted, he or she will be required to fill out a Birth Parent Updated Medical History form. This form will be placed in the adoptee’s file at Connecticut Vital Records and will be given to the adoptee when he/she requests a copy of their original birth certificate. Adoptees and birth parents will be able to go to the Connecticut Vital Records website for detailed information on the proposed new law and how to fill out the new forms.

For like further information about Access Connecticut contact Jane Servadio at 203-874-2023, janerino@optonline.net, or Paul Schibbelhute at 603-880-7790, pschibbe@aol.com.