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Short Stuff: Birth Certificate Access · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Chuck and this is short stuff, So let's stop wasting
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: time and begin speaking. Now. Yes, we are going to
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: talk about adoption birth certificate access and where did we
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: get this? Uh? Where do we get some of this? Rob?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I believe we found out how stuff works, but they
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: were published it from the Conversation. We're working largely from
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: an article by Andrea Ross, right, and this is all
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: about the thorny matter of uh whether or not, not
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: really whether or not, but the idea that a grown
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: up or maybe sometimes not even grown up adopted person
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: um might want to gain access to their original birth certificate.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And in many states in the United States, those are
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: sealed and you are not allowed to unless you jump
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: through a lot of hoops, which is really interesting, Like
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you think access to birth certificates would be the most
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: boring thing you can think of, But um, I saw
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  Speaker 1: it described as a basic human right to know your
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: genuine identity. UM. And that's a really good point. I
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: can't I It's just I'm sure it's so easy for
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: somebody like me on the outside to just be like, well,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: sure you know, do that or don't do that. It's
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: is it that big of a deal. And then to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to put yourself in somebody's shoes is going through that
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: who wants to know who their biological parents are and
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: is not allowed as being prevented from doing that by
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the state. I can't imagine anything more frustrating than that. Really, Yeah,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I got some thoughts, but we'll we'll pepper those in.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: As it stands now, there are ten states in the
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: United States that offer um complete access to their original
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: birth certificates. Um. In eighteen states, I believe that you
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: need a court order, Is that right? Yeah? In eighteen states, UM,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: what happens is they put your original birth certificate under
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: seal and they issue you a supplemental birth certificate that
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: doesn't have your biological parents names on it has your
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: adoptive parents names. And in those states, if you successfully
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: petition the court, they will unseal your original birth certificate
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and then you can find out who your biological parents are, right. Uh.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And then in twenty three states there you can get
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: a redacted version, which I don't even see the point that. Uh.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: And then in twelve other states they have restrictions that
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: allow for access. And this is the one I really
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: don't understand. It's just between if you were born between
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: certain time frames. So the best that I can come
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: up with for that is that there were laws passed
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: that that named like those dates that are still on
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the books that are now affecting people today's but those
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: dates have been outlived. So now there's people who have
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: access to their birth certificate, whereas other people who were
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: born after a different date don't, which makes it arbitrary
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and an easy low to overturn. Okay, all right, well
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: let's take a break and we'll talk about kind of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: where this came from and how the culture has shifted
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: over the years right after this alright, so amending birth
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: certificates uh started I think I'm saying birth Uh this
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  Speaker 1: started in the nineteen forties, originally to kind of keep
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: parents from interfering with the adoptive family of the child.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: And there has been, um, you know, a big swing
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: over the last seventy years since since then as far
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: as what the norms are like, things have really changed
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: over the years in terms of how adoptions go down. Yeah,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: because Andrew Ross points out that there's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people who think that the off the book's reason for
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  Speaker 1: sealing birth certificates was also to protect the identity of
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: unwed mothers, because back in that time, if you're if
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: you were out it as an unwed mother who had
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: had what they considered illegitimate child that you put up
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  Speaker 1: for adoption, Um, it could probably make it hard for
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: you to get a job. You might lose friends, your
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: neighbors might shun you. It was a big deal. And
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: so yeah, she's saying, like, we've really come a long
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: way since then. So if that's really the reason why
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  Speaker 1: we were sealing birth certificates to begin with, it doesn't
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: make any sense anymore. Yeah, And there's a lot of
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: states that have come around since then. Obviously we mentioned
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: those ten that now allow complete access, but as we speak,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: there are other states that are kind of in the
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: midst of enacting new policy changes. I know Tennessee in
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Connecticut and Rhode Island all heaven and the last few years,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: UM kind of put legislation for word that favor access
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: for uh. I keep saying kids, but I guess usually
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you have to be over eighteen, right, Yeah, that's another
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: thing too. There are some so clearly there's a big
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  Speaker 1: patchwork of laws, right and depending on what state you
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: live in, you might have, like you said, unfederal access
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: or no access at all. But then there's a bunch
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: of states that have laws that say, when you turn eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: you can get your original birth certificate if you ask
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  Speaker 1: for it. Yeah, and it's you know, adoption is different
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: across the board in all states anyway, So it's when
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I was going through it, I just remember being shocked
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  Speaker 1: at sort of every state has its own set of
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: rules and laws and um, which you know, obviously a
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: lot of people feel that's how it should be, states
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  Speaker 1: just choosing the way they want to do things. But
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  Speaker 1: there is no sort of straight ahead way that you
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: can say this is how adoption works. So it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: surprise me that there's no straightforward reason or way that
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  Speaker 1: people can determine or get their hands on their original
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: birth certificate. Right. So yeah, and like you said, there
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: are some changes on the horizon, Like I think Tennessee
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  Speaker 1: said that um they said a parent, a birth parent
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  Speaker 1: is no longer allowed to veto UM the their biological
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: child's right to access their original birth certificate, which is
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a It's a feature in a lot of states as well,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: where you can be granted access to if you petition
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  Speaker 1: at court, but your biological parent has the right to
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  Speaker 1: say Nope, they can't, I don't want that released. And
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  Speaker 1: usually it goes the other way to the biological child
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  Speaker 1: can also can can revoke or veto the release of
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: their own birth certificate to their biological parents. Yeah, I
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: mean it is. It is a thorny issue when you
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: start looking at kind of both sides, because you certainly
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: feel like it's a right to be able to know
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  Speaker 1: where you came from. Uh, and it's certainly made a
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: lot easier these days with DNA testing, if that's something
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  Speaker 1: that someone can afford to do. But uh, you also
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: think about, you know, the right of a biological mom
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to retain their privacy, because if they had an adoption
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: plan to begin with it, one of the reasons may
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: have or one of the things that went along with
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: that may have been like, listen, this is why I'm
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: doing this. I don't want to be contacted. I don't
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: want to have a relationship. And you know, I guess
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, even if they live
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: in a state where they can make contact, the biological
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: parents can still say, well, now I don't want a relationship. Yeah,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: they can for sure. So to kind of like take
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: a middle ground for some of these states that don't
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: have unfederate access to original birth certificates, they've created something
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: called Confidential in their intermediary services, and it's basically like Tinder,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: but for adoptions or biological families. Right, so one family
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: member can say, hey, I really want to get in
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: touch with my biological parents. Can can you see if
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: you can put me in touch with them? That that
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: service will contact the biological parents and the biological parent,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: and so will they're swipe left or right right. Um,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Here's what I didn't see mentioned anywhere that I can't
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: quite wrap my head around is that these days, it's, Um,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: I think it's very uncommon for adoptive parents too to
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: not share this information and to say like, no, I'm
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: not gonna let you know who this was. That's a
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: very old school sort of way adoptions used to go.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: So I'm kind of wondering how much this matters in
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: these modern times where we're generally parents are pretty open
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: about saying like, hey, this is who your logical parents were.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: If you ever want to get in touch with them,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: we can try and do that one. Yeah, so um,
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  Speaker 1: Andrea Ross sites one statistic. I'm not sure if it's
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: in the United States in general or if it's in
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire. But um, less than one percent, actually less
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  Speaker 1: than three quarters of a percent of birth parents said
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  Speaker 1: that they don't want to be contacted by um their
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: biological child ever. Yeah, that I want to know more
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: about that because that just says in states like New Hampshire, right,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: But that seems like a very narrow sort of well,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: states offering unrestricted access. So yeah, I don't know, it's
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: it's I guess it's kind of unclear. Yeah, well it
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: gives so if you have unrestricted access to your birth certificate,
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  Speaker 1: I think the state some states give the biological parent
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: the right to say please like check the box like
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: don't I don't want to be contacted ever kind of thing. So,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: like the the kid might be able to see who
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the biological parent is, but there they will also get
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: a message thing like don't don't bother this, they don't
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: want to be contacted. Yeah, it's you know, this is
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: something I'm going to face one day as a parent
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: of an adopted child, and it's I think they say
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  Speaker 1: that girls usually are more interested in this earlier than boys,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and that like in the teenage years, typically girls might
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: be a little more interested in making that connection. In boys,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: it's like sometimes in their adult life. But you know,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: this is something we're gonna face and we're always it's
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: always that thing where you you're gonna do We're gonna
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  Speaker 1: do the right thing and be like, all right, if that,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: if now is the time, we'll try. But there's always
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: that risk that biological mom or and or dad it's
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: just gonna say no, thank you, And then you know,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: that's just something you've got to go through. Is a family.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: It's tough, tough stuff, and that's one of the tough
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: parts about adopts. Yeah, but you guys are a strong family.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You can do it. Yeah, And you know, I would
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: love for there to be relationships one day, but that's
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: something that you know, you can't force them, So we're
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: definitely not one way or the other for sure. I
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: think that's a good thing to remember and to end
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: this episode on what do you think? I totally agree
• 10:41
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• 10:47
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