texas

Adoptees' Bid for Access to Birth Certificates Stirs Debate

The adoptee-rights movement has struggled in both conservative and liberal states

Adoptee-rights activists in Texas have been pushing for birth certificate access for years, but have been thwarted. They attribute recent setbacks to the clout of a single state senator, Donna Campbell, a physician, adoptive mother and close ally of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate president.

In 2015, a bill that would have provided adoptees with unrestricted access to their original birth certificates passed the House on a 138-1 vote, yet failed to advance out of a Senate committee after Campbell blocked it. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate this year but failed to reach the floor for a vote, with Campbell again instrumental in stopping it.

Campbell, in a statement provided by her office, said the bill "did not afford birth parents the privacy protections guaranteed by current law." She said adoptees should instead make use of a state registry that's intended to help birth parents and adult adoptees reunite by mutual consent.

"There are more than 600,000 adopted people in Texas, and Donna Campbell is the only one standing in the way of them gaining access to their birth certificates," said Marci Purcell, one of the activists spearheading the push for change.

An adoptee born in New Jersey in 1971, Purcell reunited with her birth parents in 1991.

"My birth mom said she wondered for 20 years: Was I OK?" said Purcell. "There are no words to describe the relief she felt that day I met her."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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