California Alliance for Adoptee Rights
Call to action!!
From Concerned United Birthparents
Adult adoptees born in California need our support to get CA Senate Bill 381 passed to get unrestricted access to their own original birth certificates. CUB stands with California Alliance For Adoptee Rights (“CAAR”), and CUB supports unrestricted open records for all adoptees to have access to their original birth certificate, just like everyone else does. We birth/first mothers were never promised lifelong privacy or confidentiality from our own children who were relinquished for adoption. This isn't about searches, DNA or reunions; it's about the adult adoptee's identity, dignity, and the human right to access their own personal origin information. There is nothing more personal than one’s own birth certificate. CA Adoptees are asking for birth/first mothers support right now. It is critical to the success of this bill. This is the least we can do since adoptees never had a choice, nor did they consent to any of this.
The State of California, by withholding access to their original birth certificates, maintains the status quo of unnecessary secrecy, shame and stigma around adoption. It is insulting and damaging to our adult children and to us. These hurtful and frustrating outdated laws, keeping an adult adoptee's birth records sealed away forever, is discriminatory to our relinquished children and treats them like forever children when they are adults. It’s time to give adult adopted people the same rights to their records that everyone else automatically enjoys. It is also time to stop using Birth/First Mother privacy/confidentiality as an excuse to block laws that would allow adult adoptees access to their own personal vital records in the State of California.
California born adult adoptees are requesting letters from birth/first mothers (whose child was born in California) explaining that they were never promised privacy or confidentiality from their own children. Most mothers never knew that their names would be erased from their baby’s birth certificate, hidden and sealed away forever from their own children and to be replaced with an altered birth certificate. This edited version or "amended birth certificate” is intentionally inaccurate. It conceals the name of the mother who actually carried and gave birth to the child. This was not done to protect us, but to erase us, and we don’t need or want either. CA born adult adoptees deserve their accurate original birth certificates from the State of CA now. Please help pass SB 381 this January 2026! We at CUB fully support CA Senate Bill 381 and we hope you will too!
Thank you,
Deborah Myers, CUB President

To support this bill, please write two letters (they can be the same), and address one to the Judiciary Committee and one to the Health Committee. Listed below is how to address the letters to each of the committees, as well as the links to the portals where you will need to submit the letters to the two committees. ***If you cannot figure out how to use the portals, you can instead email your letters, addressed as below, as an attachment to Wendy Turk of CAAR at wturk333@gmail.com.
FYI, information on letter policy: https://sjud.senate.ca.gov/.../senate-judiciary-committee
Senate Judiciary Portal link (scroll to the bottom of the page to the red box to submit): https://sjud.senate.ca.gov/committeehome (As soon as the portals are active)
*(Address and who to direct to for The Senate Judiciary Committee)
[Date]
Senate Judiciary Committee
1021 O Street, Room 3240
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: SB 381 (Wahab) SUPPORT
To the Honorable Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
Chair Umberg, Vice Chair Niello, and Senators Allen, Ashby, Caballero, Durazo, Laird, Reyes, Stern, Valladares, Wahab, Weber Pierson, and Wiener
Senate Health Portal link: (scroll to bottom of the page to the red box to submit): https://shea.senate.ca.gov/committeehome (As soon as this portal becomes active)
*(Address and who to Direct to for The Senate Health Committee)

[Date]
Senate Health Committee
1021 O Street, Room 3310
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: SB 381 (Wahab) SUPPORT
To the Honorable Members of the Senate Health Committee – Chair Menjivar, Vice-Chair Valladares, and Senators Durazo, Gonzalez, Grove, Limón, Padilla, Richardson, Rubio, Weber Pierson, and Wiener
Please send your name, a little bit about yourself, when your child was relinquished for adoption, and why you support this bill. Please send your letters as soon as you can before January 6th, supporting SB 381 as an attachment through the above portals for each committee when they both become live, and to Wendy Turk at California Alliance For Adoptee Rights, wturk333@gmail.com.
Lori Schultz from CAAR is going to be leading 3 zoom letter writing meetings for anyone interested: Saturday December 27th at 10am PT, Monday December 29th at 7:00pm PT, and Monday January 5th at 7pm PT. (this one will include uploading instructions for anyone who needs that) -please note letters must be submitted before noon PT on January 6th!!! Anyone interested is welcome to email Wendy Turk at wturk333@gmail.com or Lori Schultz at loriwschultz@gmail.com
This bill will be introduced on January 5th with updated language, (the bill language giving unrestricted access to OBC's is replacing unrelated language about rent raises through a "gut and amend" process to replace an old bill that died and get our bill in to the upcoming session. So if you google SB 381 now, don't worry if you find rent language, it will be our language by January 5th!)
The Senate Judiciary Committee will first hear this bill on January 13th, and The Senate Health Committee on January 14th in Sacramento. If Birth/First Parents want to attend the one or both of the hearings in support of this bill there may be a chance to give their name, connection to adoption, and why they support this bill.
See Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Health Committee Fact Sheet and Talking Points below.

FACT SHEET: Restoring Adoptee Access to Original Birth Certificates (OBCs)
California Alliance for Adoptee Rights (CAAR)
Contact: https://caallianceforadopteerights.org
SUMMARY
Adult adoptees in California are denied the right to obtain their own original birth certificate
(OBC)—a vital record created at birth and independent of adoption. Our bill restores equal access to this record. It is not about adoption files, reunions, or confidential communications. It is simply about allowing adults to access the document that records the true facts of their birth.
KEY POINTS
1. The Original Birth Certificate Is a Vital Record
● Issued at birth for all children, before any adoption occurs.
● Contains only basic birth information—not adoption data.
● Adoption may never occur; therefore no confidentiality can be promised.
2. No Legal Basis for Confidentiality Claims
● Relinquishment documents contain no promise of anonymity—they cannot, because
adoption is not guaranteed.
● OBCs remain accessible when children are not adopted or when adoptive parents decline a
new certificate.
● Courts can—and do—order access, demonstrating there is no absolute right to birth
parent confidentiality.
3. Birth Mothers Overwhelmingly Support Access
● More than 95% of birth mothers favor unrestricted OBC access.
● Research from 26 states shows no historical promise of confidentiality to birth mothers.
● We have letters of support from birth mother organizations, a national association of
adoption attorneys, the American Academy of Pediatrics, foster parent organizations, and
other professional organizations.
● Birth mothers do not want restrictions or barriers to birth certificate access for their
relinquished child when they are adults under the guise of claiming to “protect” birth
mothers - it contradicts their own voices.
4. Anonymity No Longer Exists
● DNA testing, genealogy databases, and search technology already identify birth families.
● Accessing one’s own OBC is less invasive than DNA searches involving extended
relatives.

5. Secrecy Harms Adoptees
● Denies essential family health history, affecting medical care and prevention.
● Prevents cultural or tribal affiliation (e.g., Native American heritage).
● Can cause passport denials for adoptees whose amended certificates were filed years
after birth.
● Reinforces outdated stigma and treats adoptees unequally under the law.
6. Broad, Bipartisan Support Nationwide
● 16 states now allow unrestricted OBC access.
● No negative outcomes and courts have upheld these laws.
● Louisiana (2022), New Hampshire (2005), and others recognize this as a human rights
and equality issue.
WHY CALIFORNIA MUST ACT
● A birth certificate belongs to the person whose birth it documents.
● California prides itself on civil rights, dignity, and equality—yet adult adoptees remain the
only Californians denied access to their own vital records.
● Restoring access corrects decades of state-imposed secrecy, aligns California with national
momentum, and affirms adoptees’ fundamental human right to identity.
THE ASK
Support legislation granting adult California-born adoptees unrestricted access to their original
birth certificates—just like every other person born in our state.