Read full text of SB 351 here.
Please contact Missouri Governor Jay Nixon immediately and urge him to veto SB 351. (Contact information below.) If you are from or in Missouri or have a Missouri connection, mention it in your communication.
Be sure to put: “Please veto SB 351 in the header
SB 351 makes superficial changes to OBC /original identity access structure, removing adoptive parent sign-offs, while maintaining retrospectively and prospectively the other restrictions which keep Missouri adoptee birth records and identity a state secret. It allows adoptees, under certain conditions, to access identifying information about siblings, and permits adoptees’ lineal descendants under certain conditions, to access identifying information if the adoptee is deceased. The bill, however, does not even mention the term “original birth certificate” or what “identifying information” could be released and in what form. A letter from the court? An original birth certificate?
Current law allows for nonidentifying information, if known, concerning undisclosed biological parents or siblings to be furnished by the child placing agency or the juvenile court to the adoptive parents, legal guardians or adopted adult upon request. This act allows such nonidentifying information to also be furnished to the adopted adult’s lineal descendants if the adopted adult is deceased. SECTION 453.121.3
This act modifies the provisions regarding adopted adults obtaining identifying information of the undisclosed biological parents by making a request to the circuit court having original jurisdiction. This act provides that such identifying information shall also be furnished to the adopted adult’s lineal descendants if the adopted adult is deceased. SECTION 453.121.4
Current law allows the adopted adult to make a request and prescribes a procedure for obtaining consent from both the adoptive and biological parents if prior consent has not been given either through the adoption information registry or through contact by the child-placing agency or juvenile court personnel. This act modifies current law by requiring just the biological parents to be notified about the request for identifying information. SECTION 453.121.4 AND 5
If a biological parent authorizes the release of information or if a biological parent is found to be deceased, the court shall disclose the identifying information as to that biological parent to the adopted adult so long as the other biological parent either:
-Is unknown
-Is known but cannot be found and notified
-Is deceased or
-Has filed with the court an affidavit authorizing the release of information. SECTION 453.121.7
This act provides that adopted adults may obtain identifying information on adult siblings with the sibling’s consent without the court having to find that such information is necessary for health-related purposes. SECTION 453.121.8
Provisions of this act are similar to HB 427 (2011).
Use the template here to contact Governor Nixon. Urge him to veto S 351.
I am sure thst this is going to make me VERY unpopular in certain circles, but I did write to the Governor and asked him to veto this bill, because it is NOT about rights or OBC which is not even mentioned. It is about the state parceling out SOME information to SOME adoptees about SOME parent. And, if there is no reunion, which supposedly these bills are NOT about, there is no way to know if the information is accuate.
This not about either open records or open OBC. It is about control and maintaining the secrets. It is certainly NOT about protecting mothers or any bogus claims of protecting privacy. It is crumbs and it is crummy.
I have been trying to work with the MO Adoptee group, and they really want me to shut up and go away. However, I am concerned about how far compromise is willing to go!
BTW, my son was born in MO. This bill VERY MUCH affects me.
Thanks so much, Sandy. Missouri is a horrible state for adoptees and I understand why anything that moves forward looks like an improvement. Outside of the removal of aparent consent, which would put the state into mid 20th century, the bill does nothing, but further secrecy and shame. If it took this long to get rid of the aparent clause, just how long do they think it would take to get records open. Another 100 years?
You did the right thing, no matter what others think.