Ten Reasons Adult Adoptees Should Have Access
To Their Original Texas Birth Certificates...

1.	This Is A Basic Right Enjoyed By All Other Citizens ADULT adoptees should have the same birthright as every other Texas citizen - namely, the right to access his/her original birth certificate. In the last session of the Texas Legislature, TxCARE was responsible for introducing bills which would give adoptees at age 21 access to their original birth certificates, and we are working toward this goal for the 1999 Texas Legislature. The right of U.S. citizens to obtain copies of vital statistics and court files about themselves is already set in precedent.
2.	ADULT Adoptees Want "Truth" not "Legal Fiction" The original birth certificate of anyone whose adoption is finalized in Texas is sealed and a new "birth" document is issued. This amended birth certificate is, in fact, a legal fiction and issued arbitrarily regardless of an adoptee's age at adoption, prior knowledge of the biological family, or any other circumstance. For example, an infant or child adopted by biological family or by a step-parent is also issued a new "birth" document; the true birth certificate is not available to either the adoptee or the family. In extreme examples of arbitrary falsification, a a single adopting father is listed on the new "birth" document as having given birth!
3.	Adoptees Are Bound By Contracts Made By Others Since the Emancipation Proclamation it has been unconstitutional to have contractual agreements concerning the ownership of human beings. We can not make contracts which limit or deny individual rights without the consent of all parties to the contract. Yet, in adoption, an adoptee is expected to adhere for a lifetime to a verbal or implied adoption contract to which he/she was not a participant.
4.	Over Half A Million Texans Have Lost A Basic Human Right It is estimated that 3% of the general population are adopted persons. Thus, over half a million Texans will have their rights restored by a law allowing them to access their original birth certificates and court records. About 11% of the Texas population is estimated to be touched directly by adoption, either as an adoptee, a birth parent, or an adoptive parent.
5.	A Majority Of Adoptees Want Knowledge About Their Roots In any given year, about 2% of all adopted adults search for biological family or information. If 2% of 552,000 different adoptees in Texas were to search each year for 20 years, the number would total 220,800. Given a life expectancy of 76 years, it's quite likely that any given adoptee will want to access his/her birth records at some point.
6.	Access to Birth Records Will NOT Impact The Adoption Rate This law would not decrease the overall rate of adoptions. Both Alaska and Kansas give adult adoptees their original birth certificates. During the 1990s, Alaska has had over twice the per capita rate of adoptions as Texas, and the Kansas' per capita adoption rate has been over 55% higher than Texas'. Montana and Tennessee recently have passed laws giving adult adoptees the right to their birth records.
7.	Access to Birth Records Will NOT Increase Abortions This law would not increase abortions. One study showed the longer a country has allowed adoptees access to their birth certificates, the lower a country's abortion rate. In the U.S., there are about 335 abortions per 1,000 live births. Kansas, which gives adoptees at age 18 their birth certificates, had a reported abortion ratio of 164.5 abortions per 1,000 live births in 1992. The Texas abortion ratio was 284 abortions per 1,000 live births in 1992.
8.	Federal Courts Ruled That Access Does Not Violate Confidentiality This law will not violate the privacy of relinquishing mothers. In February, 1997, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the plantiff's claim that Tennessee's new law violates privacy against disclosure of confidential information. The court said: "...birth is both an intimate occasion and a public event, and the long history of government-kept records of babies' birth further the interest of children in knowing the circumstances of their birth."
9.	Relinquishing Mothers Weren't Promised Anything Adoption relinquishment documents and letters provided by numerous Texas birthmothers to TxCARE show that no life-time "confidentiality" was ever offered to relinquishing mothers. When a relinquishing mother chose (and sometimes were coerced to choose) adoption for her infant, privacy was not an option. A relinquishing mother, by signing away her parental rights, had to accept a non-negotiable condition of confidentiality because it was assumed that confidentiality was needed.
10.	"There is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage..." The following quote from Alex Haley sums up the need for a Texas law restoring this basic civil right to ADULT adoptees: "In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are, and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning; no matter what our attainments in life, there is the most disquieting loneliness."