Connecticut Senate makes it easier for 38,000 adult adoptees to obtain original birth certificates
As ancestry and genealogy capabilities have seen major advances, the state Senate granted final legislative approval Tuesday night for a once-controversial bill that would make it easier for adopted children to find their birth parents.
The long-disputed adoption bill would expand access to original birth certificates for adults over the age of 18, as well as their adult children and adult grandchildren. Out of 3.5 million people in Connecticut, 38,000 do not have an original birth certificate and could take advantage of the bill, lawmakers said.
After a detailed debate, the Senate voted 27-8 after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Sen. Dennis Bradley, a Bridgeport Democrat who was indicted earlier Tuesday on campaign finance charges and released from federal court, was absent for the vote.
Sen. Stephen Cassano, the measure’s chief proponent as the co-chairman of the planning and development committee, said lawmakers have been battling “at least five years’' as objections by legislators have gradually faded away through the years.
When he first started working on the emotional and personal issue, Cassano said the vote at the committee level was 50-50. This year, he said, it was unanimous at 22-0.
“There has been a real attitude change,’' Cassano said.
In one case, the birth mother and the daughter lived only two blocks away from each other before they were reunited, he said.
“Neither one knew she was living there,’' Cassano said.
Under current law, those whose adoptions were finalized after Oct. 1, 1983, are able to get uncertified copies of their original birth certificate. Before that date, however, access has been impossible for many.
The new bill eliminates the timeframe, but opponents are concerned that mothers who gave their children up for adoption in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s had expectations of privacy at the time. The battle has lasted for years at the state Capitol, and advocates said a key reason for disclosure is that adoptees can learn their family medical and biological history, which is highly important in many cases for health reasons.
Sen. Tony Hwang, a Fairfield Republican, said he was struck years ago by one of the earlier discussions of the issue.
“It was one of the most thought-provoking and emotional debates I’ve ever experienced in the General Assembly,’' Hwang said.
Regarding DNA advances, lawmakers say that 92% of adult adoptees who search are able to find some relatives, including distant relatives.
Citing promises of privacy that were made in the past, Catholic Charities — a major agency in the adoption process through the years — testified against the measure, known as House bill 6105.
The bill “would violate agreements between Catholic Charities adoption agencies and the agreement made with birth parents that their identity would not be revealed,’' the organization’s testimony said. “These birth parents, who have moved on in their lives and may have built new families, deserve to have this serious agreement respected. ... During the adoption process, medical information is collected and can be made available to the adopted person without birth parent permission. This information does not identify the birth parent.”
Sen. Heather Somers, a Groton Republican, said the perspective of birth mothers is highly important if they were promised anonymity during a crisis pregnancy decades ago that might have happened at a time of domestic violence or date rape.
“Many women faced fear, stigma ... and shame,’' Somers said. “They made their decisions based on a guarantee of anonymity. ... I do think the birth mother has a right to be able to consent to that. ... It always falls on the birth mother. It’s always the woman who carries the burden.’'
Sen. Eric Berthel, a Watertown Republican, said he agrees with Somers that legislators have an obligatin to keep the promises that were made to birth mothers. Currently, there is a process in the state where birth mothers who want to reveal their identity can come forward. Berthel said that an 80-year-old woman who spoke to him recently said she wants the promise kept after giving up her baby 60 years ago.
Senate Republican leader Kevin Kelly of Stratford said, “With the adoption of this bill, 38,000 promises will be broken. ... I don’t want to vote to break those 38,000 promises.’'
But Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat, said that “the tide has shifted and moved’' through the years as adoptees are trying to connect with their past and connect with their future.
The measure has a long legislative history of controversy. In 2006, then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed a similar bill, saying that mothers had allowed their children to be adopted under the assumption that the information would always stay private.
In her veto message, Rell said the bill was “well-intentioned and much-needed in certain respects.’' But she added that the fundamental right to privacy is “a basic tenet of personal freedom” and the measure “violates that principle.”
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com
