Dear California Legislators: 3 Reasons to Vote for Adoptee Rights

January 6, 2026

Dear California Legislators: 3 Reasons to Vote for Adoptee Rights

The California Alliance for Adoptee Rights is preparing for next week’s key legislative events that address access to original birth certificates for adult adoptees (Senate Bill 381).

My longtime friend Lorraine Dusky has put out a call for those who advocate for adoptees to make their voices heard. Here is my letter to California legislators.

(Visit the links above SOON if you, too, would like to write your own letter advocating for adoptees.)

Dear California Lawmakers

I write as an adoptive mother who advocates for reorienting adoption policy on adoptees. Contrary to the intent of the oft-stated “best interest of the child,” laws made regarding access to original birth certificates have historically focused on the wants and needs of adoptive parents and birth parents.

Legally speaking, only adults enter into adoption placements. It’s been presumed that adopting parents want to erase any other claims to a child and avoid any messiness that comes from a child having another set of parents. It has been presumed that placing parents, either adults themselves or those under the guardianship/influence of their own parents, would need lifetime secrecy and shielding from their progeny.

None of these presumptions are commonly true.

And what about the third participant in an adoption—the one who didn’t have a say? The adoptee is a baby/child at the time of placement, and therefore has no agency.

We Don't Need to Guess. We Need to Listen.

For more than a century, we have only guessed at what that baby/child would have to say about sealed birth certificates. But we don’t need to guess because adult adoptees have been telling us. Adoptees need updated laws that honor their:

Identity: genealogy is a top hobby of Americans. Why? Because it’s absolutely normal for people to want to know who they are, where they came from, and the stories in their genetic line.
Health: I like being able to answer the questions my doctor asks about my parents’ and grandparents’ health history. Don’t you? If you are an adoptee, not only do you not have this history for yourself, but you also don’t have it for your children and their children.
Equality: adult adoptees in 34 states are treated like children while the non-adopted are not. They either cannot access their own birth certificates—vital records—or they need permission from their parents to access.

Reorient Adoption Policy on Adoptees

If California legislators were to orient on the adoptee, then an adoptee’s needs would take precedence over adoptive parent wants and birth parent desires. In case you presume that ignoring a birth parent’s desire for secrecy would lead to more abortions, both research and data show that in states that allow equal access to original birth certificates (like mine, CO), this is not the case.

Please discard harmful and backward 20th century policies and vote to open access to original birth certificates for California adoptees in the 21st century. Please reorient adoption policy on the adoptees we all purport to serve.