Time to Change Massachusetts Law to Allow all Adult Adopted People born in Massachusetts Access to their Original Birth Certificates

What:  first meeting of ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS, a grass roots effort dedicated to passing legislation restoring the human right for all adult adopted people born in Massachusetts, access to their original birth certificates (OBC).

Where:  Cambridge Family and Children’s Services office at 60 Gore Street, Cambridge, MA 02141

When:  August 15th, from 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Who:  ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS and YOU!

Help Me Fix the ONLY Thing I can Undo for My Son Max!

While I am in and from NY, my agency was MA based so I was moved to Newton and gave birth and relinquished Max in Massachusetts.  I recall the agency telling me that I could receive a copy of this original birth certificate if I requested one within the first 6 months, before his adoption was finalized and sealed forever. At the time, I didn’t know any better. I didn’t think that *I* needed a piece of paper to tell me that I gave birth to my baby. I didn’t’ see that the OBC had any value and deeply regret to this day that I didn’t get a copy in time.

Of course, it really isn’t about me. Even if I had gotten a copy of Max’s OBC listing our name, it still would not change the fact that HE is still treated differently than my three other children. It would not change the fact that HE is treated differently than other Massachusetts citizens. It would not change the fact that HE is treated differently than other MA adoptees.

Currently adoptees born between 1974-2008 do not have access to their birth records.

Even years into a reunion, if Max and I walked hand and hand into MA vital records, we cannot get a copy of the legal document that holds both our name. He still lives there and as a 1987 adoptee, is smack dab middle of the blackout years of the current MA Adoption OBC access laws.   I have always said that I cannot undo the mistake of my past. I cannot change the choice I made. I cannot go back and choose to parent my son.  I cannot change and NOT be a birthmother.

Getting his access restored is really the ONLY thing I can undo from the range of mistakes I made called adoption! PLEASE help me fix the ONLY thing I can help undo for him!

(If I was NOT in Atalanta for the Adoptee Rights Demonstration on the 15th, I WOULD be in Cambridge, MA)

ACCESS  MASSACHUSETTS is gearing up to fix the mistake made when the OBC access was changed in 2007 making MA a horrible “sandwich” state. Please help! Share, share, share.

ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS Getting it Right for Adoptees

Cambridge, Massachusetts: August 5th, 2013 – The public is invited to the first meeting of ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS, a grass roots effort dedicated to passing legislation restoring the human right for all adult adopted people born in Massachusetts, access to their original birth certificates (OBC). The meeting will be held on August 15th, from 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM, at the Cambridge Family and Children’s Services office at 60 Gore Street, Cambridge, MA 02141(close to Lechmere station).

Current Massachusetts Adoption Laws Indiscriminate Adoptee Discrimination

Members of ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS believe that Massachusetts law that prevents adult adopted people born after July 14th, 1974 and before January 1st, 2008 access to their OBC is discriminatory. It also denies them of a human right that all other citizens in Massachusetts enjoy and that is the right to go to the vital records office and obtain a non-certified copy of their original, unamended birth certificate. ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS believes it’s time for the Massachusetts legislature to restore the human right for all Massachusetts born adult adopted people to obtain non-certified copies of their original birth certificates.

The legislation supported by ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS, has precedence in a number of states. Most recently New Hampshire (2005), Maine (2007) and Rhode Island (2011) have passed legislation restoring the human right for all adult adopted people born in their states to obtain a non-certified copy of their original birth certificate. In these states an overwhelming majority of legislators voted in favor of restoring the human right to its native born adult adopted people to obtain their OBC. New Hampshire became the 5th state, Maine the 6th state and Rhode Island the 7th state in the U.S. to allow all its adult adopted people to access their original birth certificate along with Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, and Oregon.

Adult Adoptees in Mass Deserve EQUAL Treatment and Equal OBC Access

ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS recommends the following legislation become law which respects the rights of adult adopted people to obtain their original birth certificate as well as respecting the rights of birth parents to express their desire for contact from their biological children.

At the age of 18 all adult adopted people can request a non-certified copy of their original birth certificate by filling out a Preadoption Birth Record Application Form and send it to the Vital Records Office. The new law will allow a birth parent to fill out a Contact Preference Form to express their desire for contact with their biological child in one of the following three ways:

• I would like to be contacted
• I would like to be contacted but through an intermediary of my choosing, i.e. the placing agency, personal friend, etc.
• I do not want to be contacted.

Additionally, birth mothers can fill out a family Health History Form which will be filed with the adopted person’s OBC and given to the adult adoptee when they request a copy of their original birth certificate.

Help ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS Adoptee Rights Legislation

ACCESS MASSACHUSETTS is actively looking for new members across the State of Massachusetts who are willing to work to change Massachusetts’s law to allow adult adopted people to access their original birth certificate. If this is legislation you would like to support please contact:

• Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, an adopted person at kinnect@gmail.com
• Cindy McGuigan, a birth mother from West Bridgewater, MA, at 774-259-2172 or at carmcguigan@aol.com
• Paul Schibbelhute, a birthfather, at 603-930-2091 or at pschibbe@aol.com
  

ACCESS MASS—It’s the Right Thing to Do—-ACCESS MASS