Senator Susan Lee of Montgomery County has introduced equal rights legislation in the Maryland legislature that would restore the right of all adult adopted people in Maryland to request and obtain their own original birth certificates.
The bill creates genuine contact preference forms for birthparents and adoptees and allows specified “relatives” to request and obtain the OBC in addition to the adult adoptee at age 18. SB743 further sunsets all prior disclosure vetoes beginning October 1, 2020 (though few are likely on file). Previously filed disclosure vetoes will at that date be converted into contact preferences that indicate no contact is preferred. Maryland Adoptee Rights, a member of the Capitol Coalition for Adoptee Rights, sought the bill.
Maryland instituted its current system in 2000. It provides for the release of the OBC without a court order, but applies to adoptees 21 years of age or older who were adopted on or after January 1, 2000. Current law also provides for birth parent and adoptee disclosure vetoes. The bill eliminates this discriminatory framework and provides for the unrestricted right to request and obtain the OBC. It has been referred to the Judiciary Proceedings Committee.
The official text of the bill is not yet available. More information and analysis will be provided shortly, including how to pitch in to help.