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New York Adoptees Anxiously Await Opportunity To Request Original Birth Certificates
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Jan 15, 2020
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By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Jan 15, 2020
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Starting on Wednesday, for the first time in nearly a century, New Yorkers who have been adopted and are over the age of 18 will be able to request copies of their original birth certificates, which had been previously sealed from release by state law.
It’s a day many people have been anxiously awaiting.
“The fact that I will be able to have an authentic record of my birth is just emotionally overwhelming,” said Annette O’Connell, the spokeswoman for the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition. She plans to request a copy of her birth certificate.
With the proliferation of DNA testing services like 23andMe and social media, it’s much easier for adoptees to find their biological families with or without their birth certificates. Therefore, numerous adoptees are looking for other details about their birth. “Many people don't even know what hospital they were born in, what time of day they were born, how much they weighed at birth,” O’Connell said. “Just simple information like that that non-adopted people take for granted.”
Tim Monti-Wohlpart, New York representative of the American Adoption Congress said he’d be filing for his birth certificate, “at 12:01, right at the stroke of midnight” on Wednesday morning.
“Personally, it's very exciting,” he said. “But I think what's really special about this is how many how many thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people can benefit.”
Listen to reporter Gwynne Hogan's story on WNYC:
New York State lawmakers changed the public health law last year and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill in November. Previously, adoptees could try to petition a court to unseal their birth certificates. But advocates say the process was costly and cumbersome and petitions were rarely granted.
New York will become the 10th state with unrestricted access for adoptees to their birth certificates, according to the Adoptee Rights Law Center.
With the change in law, adoptees born outside of New York City can apply online for through the state’s Health Department for their birth certificates. People can also apply by mail or in person, but online requests will be expedited. It’s estimated to take between four and six weeks for the state to process applications, though it could take longer, as the state is bracing for a rush of new applications.
Adoptees born in the five boroughs of New York City have to apply by mail. An online system will be up and running later in the year, according to a spokesman for the city’s health department.
Since the 1930s, these records have been sealed. Monti-Wohlpart and other advocates dug into state records from the period to figure out why lawmakers barred these records from release.
“They were trying to remove the stigma of illegitimacy from the adopted person... We also believe that a large of this was motivated by attractiveness of adoption to prospective adoptive parents,” Monti-Wohlpart said. “Whatever their intentions were, this was an extremely misguided and very, very hurtful policy which has affected the lives of millions of New Yorkers…You can never solve a perceived stigma by creating another secret about someone's identity.”
Even 85 years ago, advocates warned against unintended consequences the law might have if passed.
“It legalizes the falsification of permanent records,” wrote Sister Dominica Maria, the superintendent of the New York Foundling Hospital, in a 1935 letter to Governor Herbert Lehman, obtained by Monti-Wohlpart in his research of the 1936 law. “It nullifies the inalienable right of a person to know the actual facts of his birth.”
Besides adoptees themselves, descendants of deceased adoptees can also apply for their parents’ birth certificates, as well as the lawful representatives of adoptees or their descendants.
While O’Connell and Monti-Wohlpart said they’d apply for their birth certificates right away, another adoptee, who is also a state assemblymember who co-sponsored the law change, said she wasn’t so sure.
“The answer is, I don’t know,” said Pamela Hunter, who represents parts of Syracuse and the surrounding area. She said changing the law was never about her own story.
“It was always being able to afford people an opportunity if they wanted to, now they can,” she said. “And now I can.”
Tagged
new york state
adoption
birth certificate
Gwynne Hogan
Gwynne Hogan is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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