PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
  1. Signatures
    112 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. Pennsylvania House of Representatives (Representative Curtis G. Sonney)
  2. Created By
    Amanda Woolston
    Oxford, PA
About this Petition Petition Letter

Over 6 million American Adult Adoptees are denied access to their own Original Birth Certificates.  Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is not among the 6 states who has granted Adult Adoptees their universal right to access their Original Birth Certificates.  Pennsylvania's pending House Bill No. 1968 stands to make a Pennsylvania born Adult Adoptee's access to information about themselves even more complicated.  We cannot let this happen.  Sign the petition today and tell Representative Sonney that discrimination is NOT an American value.

Follow this issue by visiting www.adopteerightspa.org

Recent Signatures

Withdraw HB 1968

Representative Sonney,

The practice of amending and sealing of the birth certificates of the adopted began in Pennsylvania as a way to protect the adoptee from the "illegitimate" label that their Original Birth Certificate contained. While Pennsylvania discontinued this practice in the second-half of the 20th century, the practice of amending and sealing continued.

Despite this, the sealed Original Birth Certificate was always available and had always been available to the Adult Adoptee upon request. This changed with the passing of The Adoption Act of 1984 where the Original Birth Certificate was made unavailable to the Adult Adoptee. While sealing birth certificates was originally aimed to protect adoptees from one harmful social stigma, the continued tightened sealing of information has lead to more harmful social stigmas. What is a perfectly natural and understandable desire, to see factual birth documentation and know one's own identity pre-adoption, has turned into a negative social stigma for Adult Adoptees. HB 1968 does not treat Adult Adoptees equally, it does not improve the law and it stands to make things worse for Adult Adoptees born in Pennsylvania.

Adult Adoptees, Original Families, Adoptive Families, and Allies ask that Pennsylvania stop using an adult's adoption status as a reason to regard them differently than every other Pennsylvania-born citizen. The Basic Human Right of knowledge of truth, ancestry, original identity and factual birth documentation as well as the Civil Right to equal treatment under the law are denied to these United States citizens who simply want to know the same things about themselves that the average person takes for granted.

The government should never take part in deceiving a citizen about their origins. HB 1968 enforces court and agency position between a citizen and information that belongs to them as well as places further government and agency intervention into the personal lives of private citizens and their families. An Adult Adoptee who wants to know about themselves pre-adoption is forced to pay for their own inequality by seeking help from the court system or an agency. The tax-payers will also be funding the inequality of adopted citizens by paying for the training program described in the bill as well as the paid searchers who will be used to seek out Original Parents for permission to release information to the Adult Adoptee that belongs to the Adult Adoptee.

Adult Adoptees have a right to unhindered access to their uncensored, Original Birth Certificate. They do not deserve to have to navigate complicated legal systems that do not guarantee that their Original Birth Certificates and Original Identity will ever be released to them. Please withdraw HB 1968 and instead support HB 1978 which restores adoptee equality and streamlines Vital Services.

[Your name]

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