Marilyn Moore

After Years of Determined Fighting, State Senate Passes Adult Adoption Birth Record Bill, State Senator Marilyn Moore Supports Legislation

After years of fighting to allow adult adopted persons in Connecticut access to their birth records, the State Senate passed the legislation. State Senator Marilyn Moore (D-Bridgeport) voted in favor of this bill and now it heads to Governor Ned Lamont’s desk for signing into law. House Bill 6105, “An Act Concerning Access To Original Birth Certificates By Adult Adopted Persons,” previously passed the House by a vote of 115-28 on May 4.

HB 6105 was originally introduced in 2008 by Former State Senator Bill Finch who was adopted himself. He championed hard for the bill to pass hoping it would allow others who were adopted, like himself, to retrieve their birth records.

“Not allowing access to birth records to those who are adopted deprives them from obtaining certain parts of their biological history,” said Sen. Moore. “This legislation provides transparency to a person’s identity and allows them to access crucial information to family medical history.”

This legislation aims to end decades of their denial of important, sometimes life-impacting access to their own information. It would amend state statutes to allow all adopted individuals, and their children and grandchildren, to obtain their original birth certificates. Upon request, an individual would be able to write a request to their town or city’s registrar of birth records and receive birth records within 30 days of that request’s receipt.

Current state law says only individuals born or adopted after Oct. 1, 1983 can access their original birth certificates. Individuals born or adopted before that date are barred from accessing those records. There are more than 38,000 Connecticut residents who were adopted and were born before 1983.

Several organizations testified in support of this legislation during a public hearing held in February. The North American Council on Adoptable Children endorsed the legislation under the belief that every adopted person has the right to receive personal information about their birth, foster and adoption history, including medical information, educational and social history. The Connecticut State Medical Society gave its support, believing the legislation will lead to improved patient care and medical health, while the Connecticut Alliance of Foster and Adoptive Families supported the “equity of rights for all adopted adults.” Adopted adults cited their desires to know their histories; at least one mother who gave her daughter up for adoption in the 1960s said “closed adoptions hurt everyone” and passing the legislation “gives my daughter the document that is her right to have.”

This issue was previously raised in the General Assembly in 2017, 2018 and 2019 but was not enacted, despite wide bipartisan appeal; its discussion dates back to at least 1998, when similar legislation was first proposed in the Legislature. At least seven other states have passed similar legislation, including Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire. Court orders are still required to obtain these records in 25 additional states.