Basic Q & A on MT Adoption Law Reform

Basic Q & A on MT Adoption Law Reform

What is the problem you want to solve? Is it caused by existing law(s)?

Problem: Current state law causes unnecessary hardship on adult adoptees seeking personal information.

Who is affected by the problem?

Adoptees born on or after July 1, 1967.

What result(s) do you want to achieve with your bill?

I want adults adopted as children treated the same as adults who were not adopted as children.

What is your proposed solution to the problem?

Eliminate the court order from the required criteria needed to obtain a certified copy of a registrant's original birth certificate for registrants adopted 7/1/67 - 9/30/97. Also, eliminate the disclosure veto birth parents can sign starting 10/1/97.*

What action should the government take to solve the problem?

Pass this proposed bill which eliminates the court order requirement for people wanting a copy of their own original birth certificate, adopted, and born 7/1/67 – 9/30/97. Eliminate the disclosure veto birth mothers can sign with an end date. Honor the disclosure vetoes currently in place, but do not allow new ones to go into effect.

Is it possible to achieve your proposed solution by changing existing statutes? Which ones?

See below.

Is there a document or “draft bill” prepared by a citizen, agency, lobbyist, or other entity that could serve as a model or provide guidance for drafting your bill?

See below.

Is there legislation from another state that could serve as a model?

Yes. To name a few: OR, NH, RI, ME, and IL.

Will it cost money to implement your proposal? Where should the money come from?

New statutes will streamline procedures saving money and actually increase revenues in the vital statistics office. Additional requests for birth certificates will not exceed reasonable and current work loads.

*A disclosure veto is essentially a form that seals a birth certificate and causes the adult adoptee to get a court order before they can access to their birth own certificate. Generally these are signed at the time of birth. Obviously, birth parents can die, change their minds over time, don't always understand the paperwork they sign at the time of birth, and while they deserve the right to say 'I want to be left alone,' they don't have the right to deny another person access to essential information about themselves. The disclosure veto should be a contact preference if people feel this is important. Generally, the state can allow adults to be mature enough to speak for themselves and not hide behind a document potentially 20 years old. Privacy of a birth parent, disclosure veto, and the contact preference is from the era of shame when adoption laws were based on the concept of protecting children from the stigma of being a bastard child. In states that have opened access to birth certificates and kept statistics on contact preference and disclosure vetoes, we see less than .4 of one percent of birth parents seeking privacy. Let adults be adults and manage their own private interests.