New York State may be taking another step towards opening adoption records, including original birth certificates, with the Adoptees Equal Rights Bill.
According to an article on lohud.com, if the bill were put into effect, adoptees who are over the age of 18 would be given access to their original birth certificates and the medical history of their birth parents.
The article said that birth parents would have the option to not be contacted, and in these cases adoptees would not be able to obtain their birth certificates, but they would still be given their family’s medical history.
This bill has not been put to a vote in the state assembly as of yet, however the article said that reform groups are beginning to put pressure on the legislators to do just that.