By Dr. Stacey Patton
Creator of Spare The Kids

On Monday, the New Jersey State Assembly approved a measure that will allow adults who were adopted as infants to get a copy of their birth certificate showing the names of their biological parents.  After 31 years of fierce activism and legal battles, adoptees and advocates are calling this victory a significant development in a long civil rights battle to learn their identities.  The full Assembly approved the bill A1406/S799 by a vote of 44 to 26, with two abstentions.

But the legal fight might not be over.

Gov. Chris Christie, who has an adopted sister, now has to sign the bill.  If he does, New Jersey will become the seventh state to give adoptees a right to access their pasts.  The bill’s advocates hope that the governor’s deeply personal connection to the issue will make him sympathetic and sign the measure.  But the fact that Gov. Christie has given no indication of what he plans to do, and that he is a practicing Catholic, has raised some concern.

The two most vocal religious opponents of the legislation are the New Jersey Right to Life and New Jersey Catholic Conference.  Both groups have claimed, without presenting no empirical evidence, these groups and other organizations have argued that pregnant women faced with the prospect of losing their anonymity would be inclined to choose abortion over adoption.

“We hope the governor will veto the bill,” Marie Tasy, executive director for New Jersey Right to Life, told The Star Ledger.  “This bill is not only poorly drafted, it contains multiple flaws the consequences of which, in human terms, could be devastating to many and ultimately harm the institution of adoption.”

But Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson), who sponsored the legislation, said many opponents mistakenly believe birth mothers were guaranteed privacy.  He said that birth mothers signed papers years before relinquishing their babies “mainly to protect the adopted child and the adoptive parents.”

The bill has loopholes, one which would allow birth parents who gave a child up for adoption before the law’s passage to maintain their anonymity.  Birth parents have one year after the bill’s enactment to send a notarized letter requesting that the state registrar redact their names and addresses from the original birth certificate.  Going forward, those who surrender a baby after the law is enacted would have an opportunity to submit a document stating their preference not to be contacted.

As an adoptee, I applaud the State Assembly for granting adoptees the same equal rights as non-adopted persons – to know vital medical information, to know one’s origins and the circumstances surrounding their adoption.  I grew up yearning to know the things that non-adopted persons taken for granted – where I came from, where my real parents were, who I looked like, whether or not I had siblings, and why I was given up.  Such terrible questions deeply impact children at every developmental milestone and continue to impact their sense of themselves and emotional connections to others in adulthood.

Not only do I see this new bill as a basic civil right, but as a form of emotional justice that can offer a peace of mind and fill in the terrible void that comes with not knowing one’s self.  Of course I don’t speak for all adoptees on this issue.  There are plenty who will say that they have no desire to open up Pandora’s Box because of their love for their adoptive parents or because of fears of what they might find.

There are those who will continue to chant a mantra of speculative theories about what this bill might do, insisting that birthmothers were promised secrecy even though they weren’t.  Certain religious groups and social conservatives will make predictions of increased abortions even though studies conducted in states that have passed the measure have shown no such trends and that in fact many biological parents are open to reunions with their children.

We in the civil rights community who know all too well that the denial of access to history for the sake of keeping secrets handicaps and hurts everybody.