Missouri's adoption laws still subject to debate

Missouri lawmakers this year were asked to change state law so adults who were adopted as children could get copies of their original birth certificates.

But the bill, sponsored by state Rep. Don Phillips, R-Kimberling City, never was recommended for full debate after its March 10 hearing in the House Children and Families Committee.

That left the current state law in place, requiring adoptees to go through several steps to pursue getting the information.

The existing law says, at the time of the adoption, the state registrar files the original birth certificate and adoption decree in a sealed file, "and such file may be opened by the state registrar only upon receipt of a certified copy of an order as decreed by the court of adoption."

Heather Dodd, founder of the Missouri Adoptive Rights Movement, said adoptees shouldn't have to fight to get their original birth certificate, containing information about their biological families.

"That's a part of that person's history - and there was no one to represent that person as a child," Dodd said last week. "Once that child becomes an adult, they should be allowed to have their own information."

One of the hurdles adoptees have had to overcome is old laws - for many years, adoptions were closed.

"There was no contact whatsoever between the birth parents and the adoptive parents and child after the adoption took place," Michael Van Gundy, executive director of Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri, explained.

Dodd's mother is an adoptee, and said state law still requires a lot of "hoop-jumping" for adoptees seeking information.

Under the law, she said, an adoptee trying to find out about a birth family "could request information and - before 2011 - they were required to get permission from their adoptive parents. So my mother, who was in her 50s, would have to get permission from her 80+-year-old mother, to even request information about her biological family."

Even with the 2011 law changes, an adoptee trying to get to the original birth certificate couldn't just fill out the state's standard form, Dodd said. They still had to ask the court "to get permission to open that file."

And before the law was changed in 2011, Dodd said, "The record was permanently sealed" if the birth parents had died.

But access to the records through the court that approved the adoption still poses problems, Dodd said, because the "clerk has to be able to locate the adoption file. And, if they can't locate that adoption file, there's just nowhere to go."

In many Missouri counties, she said, the court clerks "filed those files under the birth parents' name, or under the (adopted) child's birth name, or maybe even under "Baby Jane Doe No. 12.'"

That means today's clerk "can't locate where the clerk back then put that file."

That's why her group supported Phillips' bill, which would have allowed an adoptee to get the original birth certificate from "the only place in the whole state of Missouri that has consistent records - that would give equal access to all adopted adults," Dodd said - the Health and Senior Services department's Vital Statistics division.

However, under Phillips' bill, the state would issue an "uncertified" copy of the original birth certificate, and that copy would have to include the statement that it was "for genealogical purposes only - not to be used for establishing identity."

Dodd said it's important for others to know an adoptee's search isn't a rejection of the love, care or relationships an adoptive family offered.

"You can adopt a child into your family and make them a loving part of your family, but you cannot change that child's genetic history," she noted. "You cannot adopt a medical history. You cannot adopt natural-born talent."

Many agencies assist with adoptions - Lutheran Family and Children's Services (LFCS) and Catholic Charities are two of the largest.

"Women that come to our agency often come in crisis due to an unplanned pregnancy," Heather Wall, LFCS' Columbia-based regional director, said last week. "LFCS provides them supportive, non-judgmental counseling and education about the options they may consider.

"Those options are either to parent their child or to make an adoption plan for their child."

She said those women who decide on adoption "are making this informed decision in the best interest of their child. They want more for their child than they can provide."

Van Gundy noted his organization, Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri, was founded "less than five years ago" and works with other Catholic Charities groups that have "a very long history of providing adoption services."

"When a woman chooses an adoptive life for her child, she is creating a unique opportunity for that child to be loved and nurtured in a caring environment," he said. "For many women, the decision to have their child placed for adoption is one made out of love rather than desperation."

Tyler McClay, general counsel for the Missouri Catholic Conference, noted his wife is an adoptee.

"I can tell you that the benefits are that the child gets to be raised in a stable home (hopefully) and has a chance to be raised by parents that are wanting a family," McClay said, "versus a family that may be struggling to make ends meet with a new child to support, without the emotional ability to handle the situation."

McClay understands the reasons people seek birth families, and noted many benefits to the results of that search.

Still, he cautioned, "Some women who made an adoption plan have not ever told their family about the circumstances of the adoption, so it can be potentially traumatic for the birth mother and her family.

"In other cases, the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, which makes reconnecting more complicated for obvious reasons."

Van Gundy noted the current trend toward "open" adoptions offers a number of benefits, including removing "the mystery and unanswered questions."

Still, he said, not everything comes up roses when adoptees and birth families reconnect. Dodd acknowledged not every reunion is a happy one.

"Actually, in my experience, over 90 percent of the reunions have turned out well - (and) I've seen a nationwide statistic, that a lot of them are about 95 percent," she said. "And it's all relative to what you mean "to turn out well.'

"For me, it would mean that both parties do want to connect with each other and find their truth - and, if they should decide later on that they don't want to have a relationship with this person, that's perfectly normal."

After all, she said, "relationships have to be built - they're not automatic."