New Ohio Adoption Law Helps Adult Adoptees Find Their Original Birth Parents
A new law in Ohio will unseal records for about 400,000 Ohio adult adoptees. This law, Senate Bill 23, was signed by Gov. John Kasich on December 19th. This new law will unseal records and allow these adoptees to find out who their birth parents are. This is done by allowing adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates, which list their birth parents.
According to Adoption Network Cleveland founder and Executive Director, Betsie Norris, this legislation was the sixth attempt to address this issue in the past 25 years. “Birth parents, adoptees, adoptive parents and adoption scholars and professionals all testified in favor of this bill,” she said. “There was no stated opposition, and we are also thrilled that the bill had such overwhelming support in the Ohio Legislature.”
The previous law regarding this type of discovery was very convoluted. Essentially, one law had three separate requirements depending on your age and the time period in which you were adopted. Previously for the adoptees, anyone adopted prior to 1964 had to pay a 20 dollar fee and make a request in order to receive their … Read More... “Adoptees Can Access Original Ohio Birth Certificate Says New Ohio Law”