Assemblymembers Tom Lackey, Diane Dixon, Heath Flora, and Gail Pellerin:

 

AB 1302 has been promoted as a bill that will help people adopted in California to get copies of our Original Birth Certificates. Instead, AB 1302 will require adoptees to go to court (not vital records like non-adoptees) to request copies of our OBC’s.  The bill also requires the permission of both of our biological parents to have their names remain on our copies of our OBC’s.  If they don’t give permission, then their names are omitted from our OBC’s.  Non-adoptees don’t have to ask permission from their biological parents to have their names remain on their OBC’s! Why do California legislators think that adult adoptees have to do this since our biological parents were never legally promised anonymity or privacy from us?

AB 1302 is discriminatory and treats adoptees as second class citizens. It must be completely re-written.  

Please amend AB 1302 to read:  “All people adopted in California may request copies of their Original Birth Certificates upon the age of 18 or after from the vital records office that issued the documents when they were born. The fee shall be the same amount that non-adopted persons pay for their Original Birth Certificates.”

If you cannot do this, kill your bill. 

Thank you.