New Jersey Adoption Bill FAQ's 

Frequently Asked Questions:

1.  Does access to original birth certificates violate the privacy of birth parents?

No.  The laws of the state of New Jersey have never guaranteed a right of lifelong anonymity to birth parents.  Neither the U.S. Constitution nor the N.J. statute defines privacy as a right of a parent to remain unknown to their offspring.  (See N.J. Statutes 26:8-40 and 9:3-52) 

Four courts have upheld access legislation noting that birth parents’ right to privacy does not supersede the right of adopted adults to access their own private information.  Further, adoptee’s access to birth records does not violate birth parents’ right to privacy.

                The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit noted, “the Constitution does not encompass a general right to nondisclosure of private information.”

              The Tennessee Supreme Court concluded, “that retrospective application of legislation allowing disclosure of adoption records to adopted persons…does not impair the vested rights of birth parents…nor does it violate the right to privacy…”

                The Oregon Circuit Court and Court of Appeals stated, “the Oregon legislature…did not create a contract with birth mothers to guarantee them that their identities would not be revealed to their adopted children without their consent.”

In 2000, Alabama restored to adult adoptees unrestricted access to their original birth certificates.  That same year, Oregon upheld access legislation and provided a contact preference option.  In 2004, New Hampshire passed similar legislation, which became effective January 1, 2005, and Maine’s access legislation became effective January 1, 2009

Proposed legislation in New Jersey will make the birth certificate available to the adult adoptee, 18 years of age or older, the adoptive parent of a minor and the direct descendent of a deceased adopted person 18 years or older - not the public at large.  This will allow adoptees the same access to original birth information that non-adopted persons have, unless the birth parent who relinquished prior to enactment requests nondisclosure of their name and address within the first 12 months after passage and the adoption of regulations.

2.  Did adoption agencies and attorneys give birth parents the impression that their privacy from their relinquished children would be protected even though the law did not guarantee anonymity?

Any promises of anonymity made to birth parents were verbal in nature and not given on a consistent basis.  The relinquishment documents have never contained any statement concerning birth parent confidentiality.  Such documents stated that the birth parent might never reclaim her child or attempt to locate the child or contact the family.  The law never mentioned confidentiality for birth parents.  Many agencies and attorneys revealed the child’s/birth parent’s name to the adoptive parents at the time of adoption, and often the birth parent’s name was left on the adoption decree given to adoptive parents.  Adoptees often were given this information by their parents. 

In a 1994-95 survey of 1,274 adoptive parents in 743 adoptive families, the New York State Citizens Coalition for Children found that “approximately 40% of adopted children knew the name of their birth mother, and 23% knew the name of their birth father.”  The US Department of Health and Human Services recently published Adoption USA: A Chartbook Based on the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents.  The findings represent children under age 18 who were adopted and living with neither biological parent.  “Over two-thirds of privately adopted U.S. children (68 percent) have had contact with their birth families following the adoption,” they found.  (Source:  National Center for Health Statistics)

Birth parents have no “constitutional right to anonymity.”  Birth parents do not sign a contract guaranteeing them anonymity or a right to privacy.  There can be no right, morally or constitutionally, to conceal the fact of parentage from one’s own child.  If there were such a right, how could paternity suits be allowed?  In fact, the law has recognized paternity suits for centuries.  Why does the law give relinquishing birth mothers the right to hide from their children, but withhold that right from fathers who chose not to parent?

3.  Weren’t the records sealed to protect the birth parents?

Historically, adoption records in this country were closed primarily to protect the parties to adoption from public scrutiny and to protect adoptive parents from interference or harassment by birth parents - not to protect birth parents from discovery by their adult offspring.  (See history of sealing adoption records)  The sealing of the original birth certificate occurs only upon finalization of adoption.  If a child placed for adoption is never legally adopted, the original birth certificate is never sealed.  Clearly, the intent of sealing the original birth certificate was not to ensure birth parent confidentiality.

4.  What if the birth parent doesn’t want to be found?

Under current law, birth parents have no protection from unwanted contact.  The current law provides for release of confidential adoption files and identities of birth parents to adult adopted persons at the discretion of the courts.  As such, there always have been and continue to be mechanisms by which this information is released without birth parent consent.

For the few who may not want to be found, during the 12-month period after the adoption of regulations, the bill provides a birth parent who relinquished prior to enactment to elect nondisclosure of their name and address on the copy of the birth certificate that would be released to the requesting party.  (This is known as a "disclosure veto.")  The bill also provides all birth parents (past and future) to make their wishes known regarding contact.  For the first time, birth parents will have a voice regarding contact with their son or daughter.

N.J. DYFS Adoption Registry statistics show that 95% of birth parents welcome contact.  In countries and states where access is available, a majority of birth parents welcome reunion.  A study from the U.K. (Triseliotis, Feast and Kyle) reports findings that an overwhelming majority (94%) of non-searching birth mothers were very pleased or pleased that the adopted adult had contacted them.

The real issue addressed by this legislation is a question of rights – not contact between adults. Adopted persons have been making contact with birth parents for generations, even with a closed records system. This legislation will not change that fact.  The legislation will put an end to the outdated and prejudicial system of violating the right of adoptees to obtain their own birth histories.  Every citizen has the right to be treated equally under the law.

 5.  How will the contact preference form work?

Interested birth parents who relinquished before the bill becomes law may file a contact preference form with the State Registrar indicating whether they would prefer direct contact, contact through an intermediary whom they may name, or no contact.  They will also be asked to complete a family history form, which will include medical, cultural and social history information.  When an adult adoptee requests a copy of his original birth certificate, a completed contact preference form and the family history form, if on file, will be sent with the birth certificate.

Parents who relinquish after the bill becomes law also will be given the opportunity to complete the contact preference form.  Birth parents may change their preference regarding contact at any time.  The bill provides for public services messages about the process.  Forms will be available by mail, in person, or on the web from the N.J. State Registrar.

6.  What if the adoptee gets in touch with the birth parent who doesn’t want contact?

We believe adult adoptees will honor a request for no contact, thus avoiding more rejection from their birth parent.  In the unlikely event that a reluctant birth parent is contacted, they may simply say “no,” as any other adult who hears from someone with whom they don’t want contact.

According to the Evan B. Donaldson Institute,  “there has been no evidence that the lives of birth mothers have been damage as a result of the release of information to the children (now adults) whom they relinquished for adoption.” 

In Does Opening Adoption Records Have an Adverse Social Impact?  Some Lessons from the U.S., Great Britain and Australia, 1953-2007, E. Wayne Carp, PhD found, “…there exists a vast gap, especially between the articulated fear by birth parents and adopted adults that their privacy would be invaded and their families disrupted if adopted adults were given the right to access their birth records and the reality that few or no offenses were committed.”

7.  Will the original birth certificate be available to anyone else?

The bill also provides access by a direct descendent, 18 years of age or older of a deceased adopted person or the adoptive parent or guardian of a minor adopted person.

It is important to note that pending legislation does not make adopted persons’ records open to public inspection.  It simply provides a copy of the original birth certificate to the adopted adult – the person whose birth is recorded by the document and to whom it most intimately pertains, and those family members who may have need for it to obtain current medical information.  The legislation supports the right of all persons involved in adoption to freedom from public scrutiny of their private information.

8.  Will the adoptee have access to any other documents?

No.  Other records, including counseling notes with birth parents, court records, home studies, etc., will not be available to the adoptee.  However, during the 12 months following enactment, an adult adoptee (or other authorized person) may submit a written request to the agency or intermediary who facilitated their adoption for any available nonidentifying family medical information.

9.  Will access to original birth certificates erode the relationship of adopted persons with their adoptive parents?

No.  Birth information and contact with the birth family does not replace one’s relationship with adoptive parents, but rather leads to a more complete identity for the adoptee.  Many therapists believe the process of finding the past is so helpful to the adoptee that it strengthens their relationships with their adoptive family.

Research from the U.K. “demonstrated that the loyalty and love adopted people felt towards their adoptive parents and family did not lessen as a result of the search and reunion process.  Indeed in some cases adopted people reported that it enhanced the relationship as the search and reunion had helped them identify all the positive aspects of the relationship they had with their adoptive parents.”  (See Julia Feast, Policy, Research & Development Consultant, British Association for Adoption & Fostering)

10.  Will access to original birth certificates increase abortions by women who have unplanned pregnancies?

No.  Kansas, which always allowed access to adult adoptees, consistently has far lower abortion rates than the nation as a whole.  From 2000–2005, the U.S. abortion rate declined 9%.  Access legislation went into effect in Alabama and Oregon in 2000.  Since that time their abortion rates declined 16% and 25%, respectively.  (Source: Guttmacher Institute)

Furthermore, Oregon Right to Life chose not to oppose adoption reform because they were satisfied that the abortion rate would not rise with the passage of the measure.  This has proven to be true.

New Jersey abortion rates have consistently been above the national average.  If Alabama and Oregon’s trends following access legislation correlate with New Jersey, abortions will decrease following passage of such legislation.

Abortion is a decision not to be pregnant, while placing a child for adoption is a decision not to parent.  When a woman is considering an abortion, accessible adoption records are the last thing on her mind.

11.  Isn’t access to original birth information a “modern experiment”?

No.  Known identities in adoption date back to antiquity.  Secrecy has been the failed experiment.  The intent of closing records to the public was to keep adoptive families and birth parents from public scrutiny in an era when being an unwed mother, an infertile couple, or an “illegitimate” child was shameful in American society.  The practice of sealing birth records is now widely recognized to be outdated and does not reflect the “Information Age” or “best practices” in adoption.  Adopted persons, adoptive parents and birth parents are vehemently protesting a social experiment that was unsuccessful and serves to promote secrecy and shame.

12.  Does access to information discourage people from adopting?

No.  Since 1987, the number of adoptions annually has remained relatively constant, ranging from 118,000 to 127,000.  (Source:  Child Welfare Information Gateway)

Alaska, a state with full access, has the highest adoption rate per capita of children under 18 (3.9%) compared with the national average of 2.5%.  In Kansas, also a state with full access, the adoption rate is 3.0%.  New Jersey is 2.3%.  (Source:  2000 Census)

Today, access to information - rather than secrecy - influences birth parents to choose adoption.  Adoptions that permit information sharing have risen from 36% in 1987 to 80% today.  (Source:  Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute)

Research conducted by Henney McRoy, Ayers-Lopez and Grotevant in a longitudinal study by the Universities of Minnesota and Texas could find no adoption agencies doing confidential adoptions among the agencies they researched.  This shift in practice has occurred primarily because of birth parent demand for some degree of openness that ranges from mediated open to fully disclosed.  The two Minnesota agencies that lead the state in the number of infant adoption placements do only “fully disclosed” adoptions in their infant programs while other Minnesota agencies are moving toward more disclosure.

In Great Britain and New Zealand, more adoptions took place after records were opened than before.  Studies indicate that the rate of adoption is not adversely affected when original birth records are available to adults.

 13.  Why do adoptees need information about their origins?

Ever since Alex Haley wrote Roots, genealogy has captured the fancy of the American culture.  The desire to know the facts of one’s history is an attempt to understand the age-old questions:  Who am I? Why am I?

In 2004, the U.S. Surgeon General launched a Family History Initiative and declared Thanksgiving Day to be annual National Family History Day.  He encouraged Americans to use their family gatherings as a time to collect important family health-history information that can benefit all family members.

Current medical information, often missing in adoption, can be a life-threatening omission.  Older adoptees are particularly vulnerable since over 3,000 known genetically inherited diseases exist, many of which emerge with age.

Renown adoption researcher and author, David Brodzinsky, PhD, characterizes the interest in one’s origins as “…a health extension of the universal search for self that we all engage in… adoptees and non-adoptees alike...The need to know about these individuals, and perhaps meet them, is not only normal, but for many adoptees essential for their emotional well-being.”

Mental health providers confirm the importance of accurate and truthful biological/genetic information for adopted persons to form healthy attachments and a strong sense of self, which is key to emotional maturity.

 14.  How will this legislation help adult adoptees obtain their medical histories?

Under the sealed records laws, medical information available to adopted persons is as old as they are because the information was taken before they were born.  Birth parents who file a nondisclosure and/or contact preference form will be required to complete, to the best of their knowledge, a family history form, including medical, cultural and social information and return it within 60 days.  When an adult adoptee requests a copy of his original birth certificate, the family history information provided by the birth parent will be sent to the adoptee with the birth certificate.

15.  Does the HIPPA law affect adoptees who want updated medical information?

No.  Adoptees will not have direct access to anyone’s medical records.  They will get information only if it is provided by the birth parent.  If the birth parent requests nondisclosure or no contact, they will be encouraged to update the family history information every 10 years until the birth parent reaches age 40, and every 5 years thereafter.

16.  Will counseling resources be available to adoptees and birth parents?

Yes.  The bill provides for information about counseling resources and the optional use of an intermediary.

17.  Are there any other provisions in the bill?

Yes.  During the first 12-months after enactment, an adoptee may request the approved agency or intermediary that placed the child for adoption to provide any available nonidentifying family medical information contained in that person’s adoption file.  If a person is unable to obtain information because the agency or intermediary is unknown, the requester may petition the court that granted the adoption to identify the agency or intermediary, if possible.

The bill also amends the statute to eliminate the option that allows adoptive parents to change the place of birth on the birth certificate of an adopted child.

A report will be made available to the public, which will include statistical, nonidentifying data related to this legislation.

The bill also provides that a person, firm, partnership, corporation, association or agency that placed a child for adoption shall not be liable in any civil or criminal action for damages resulting from information provided by the State Registrar pursuant to the legislation.

Further, information will be available on the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services website. 

18.  How many children are adopted in New Jersey each year? 

Approximately 2,400 adoptions take place every year in New Jersey. (Source:  Child Welfare Information Gateway)

19.  And how many sealed records are there?

The State Registrar estimates that over 150,000 adoption records have been sealed in New Jersey.

20.  What would be wrong with making this legislation prospective in nature?

If this legislation was made prospective, it would not take effect for 18 years.  It would only help persons born and adopted after the bill is enacted.  Living adopted persons born in New Jersey up to the date of the bill’s enactment would be prevented from receiving their vital information.  What other legislation is being proposed to take effect 18 years from now?

21.  Why isn’t a mutual consent voluntary registry a better solution?

Dead people don’t register!  The registry concept requires both parties to register for it to work.  Deceased or incapacitated family members cannot register which prevents the other party from obtaining vital, potentially life-saving, personal information.

Registries established within the reform movement or on the internet have had a small measure of success in reuniting those separated by adoption.  However, state mutual consent voluntary registries have a median success rate of 2%.  (Source:  American Adoption Congress registry chart – data collected 1993, 1996 and 1998). 

For a registry to work, the date and place of birth must be accurate.  In New Jersey, adoptive parents have had the option of changing the birthplace on the amended birth certificate to their place of residence.  A registry for those adoptees is useless.

Mutual consent voluntary registries without accompanying right-to-know legislation are ineffective and obstructive.  Those whose lives are not affected by adoption do not have to join a registry to obtain their information or to learn who their relatives are. 

22.  What is the history of sealing adoption records in New Jersey?

In 1938, records relating to adoption were sealed from public scrutiny.  In 1940, New Jersey passed legislation to “make secret all proceedings relating to adoption.”  The reasons cited were:  “…to keep the information from the prying eyes of the public, to protect adoptees and adoptive parents from embarrassment should the birth parent ‘turn up at some future date and possibly even to do harm,’ and to eliminate the possibility of illegal use of the information.”  There was no mention about promising life-long confidentiality to birth parents.

In 1953, New Jersey prefaced the revised adoption statute with a public policy statement desiring to “protect the child from…interference by his natural parents…, to protect the natural parents from hurried or abrupt decisions to give up the child; and to protect the adopting parents…from later disturbance of their relationships to the child by the natural parents.”

Again, there was no mention about promising life-long confidentiality to birth parents.  No such agreement has ever been produced by anyone, anywhere, even when requested by a court of law.  The N.J. statute has long allowed adoptive parents the right to keep the child’s birth name on the amended birth certificate.

The courts of N.J. have always had the authority to open adoption court records “for good cause” and to unseal original birth certificates without notice to - or participation by - birth parents.  “Good cause” has never been defined.

N.J.SA 26:8-40.1 does not say anything about guaranteeing birth parents’ confidentiality. 

The Uniform Adoption Act, published in 1953, provided that court records be sealed and withheld from inspection except by court order. Original birth records, in conformance with the provisions of the Uniform Vital Statistics Act of 1942, were to be sealed and opened only “upon the demand of the adopted person, if of legal age, or by an order of the court.”  However, the vital statistics act’s provision for adult adoptee access was deleted without explanatory comment in the 1959 successor to the act…issued by the U.S. Public Health Service....  The 1969 revision of the Uniform Adoption Act omitted altogether the earlier adoption act’s provision regarding sealing birth records, also without explanatory comment.¹ (emphasis added).

So the idea of "life-long anonymity" or "right to secrecy" became verbalized only in the 60's.  “Laws closing adoption records to the parties were enacted not as a shield to protect birth parents from their adult children's ever learning their identity, but as a sword to prevent them from interfering with the adoptive families raising their children.”²  (emphasis added)  The current laws provide for release of confidential adoption files and identities of birth parents to adult adopted persons at the discretion of the courts.  As such, there always have been and continue to be mechanisms by which this information is released without birth parent consent.  Most birth parents, then and now, want privacy from the general public and from snoops of all kinds.  That is true privacy, and this legislation would do nothing to infringe upon it.   Lastly, sealing of the original birth certificate occurs only upon finalization of adoption.  If a child is placed for adoption and is never legally adopted, but languishes in the foster care system, the original birth certificate is never sealed.  Clearly, the intent of sealing the original birth certificate is not to ensure birth parent confidentiality.

1 Elizabeth J. Samuels, JD, The Strange History of Adult Adoptee Access to Original Birth Records

2 Ibid

For more information go to:

                What You Need to Know About Adoptees Birthright Legislation