Adoption Bill Sent Back to Illinois House Committee

When the Illinois House adjourned May 31, it failed to vote on an adoption bill that would unseal state adoption records. State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), an adoptee herself, sponsored HB 4623 , which would give adoptees 21 and older access to their original birth certificates unless the birth parents withhold their consent.

“It’s a basic human right,” Feigenholtz said.

“In these situations, [adoptees want to] know more about their own family history. It’s important to have a process that protects everybody and provides access,” said Jerry Stermer, president of Voices for Illinois Children, an advocacy group in Chicago that supports HB 4623. But not everyone agrees adoptees should be given the information.

“It’s going back on a promise we really made to these birth parents,” said Ed Yohnka, director of communications and public policy for the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois.

Feigenholtz said eight states give adoptees access to birth certificates: Oregon, Maine, Alabama, Tennessee, Delaware, Massachusetts, Kansas and Alaska. HB 4623 would give birth parents six months to decide if they want the information released. If not, they can opt-out and keep their name sealed.

Yohnka said six months was not enough time and he doubted the state’s outreach to birth parents would be effective. The bill’s chief co-sponsor, Sidney Mathias (R-Buffalo Grove), said the Illinois Department of Public Health would inform people about the change in law through public service announcements over a six month period.

Some adoptees don’t think the bill goes far enough.“I don’t think it’s a good bill. It doesn’t really emancipate adoptees. [Only] some adoptees can have their birth certificates,” said Ann Wilmer, an adoptee and founder of the Green Ribbon Campaign for Open Records based in Maryland.

Adoptees born before Jan. 1, 1946 would get their birth certificates by Jan. 1, 2009 – people born after that date would get the information three months later.

All adoptees should be given access at the same time, said Triona Guidry, midwest coordinator of the Green Ribbon Campaign for Open Records and an adoptee.

Guidry has tried to get her own birth certificate, which has been sealed in Ohio since the 1980s. “[We want] to be treated the same as anyone who’s not adopted,” Guidry said.

However, some people worry changing adoption laws would make mothers choose an abortion over giving birth and adoption, said Mary Bliss, director of special projects at Illinois Citizens for Life based in Downers Grove.

Adoption laws may soon change in Michigan, too. Lawmakers there are drafting a bill similar to Illinois’ that would give adoptees access to birth certificates.

Jo Anne Swanson, an advocate for the Michigan court and a mother who was reunited with her adopted daughter, opposes Illinois’ opt-out proposal. She said adoptees should be given birth certificates. However, she said birth mothers should have a legal say in whether or not they want contact with the child they gave up for adoption.

HB 4623 was sent back to the House Rules Committee, and Feigenholtz said she would continue her work and get it passed in the fall session.