New law allows adoptees to request once-sealed birth records
Video here:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/03/20/adoptees-line-up-birth-records.html
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A new law that took effect yesterday unseals the adoption files of some 400,000 adoptees whose Ohio adoptions were finalized between Jan. 1, 1964, and Sept. 18, 1996. Advocates had long pushed for the change, decrying a three-tiered statute whereby records access depended on when the adoption took place.
Now, adults adopted between 1964 and 1996 the group that had been barred from obtaining their records can request their files. Such records usually contain the adoptees original birth certificate.
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The law that kept Ohioans from learning their personal and medical histories was cruel, Vercellotti said, and hollow in its attempt to shield birthparents who didnt want their identities hidden.
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I dont know anything, she said. But I have no bitterness. Im just happy that I might be able to get at least a part of me a piece of my heart thats been missing for a long time.
The Ohio Department of Health Office of Vital Statistics at 614-466-2531 or go to www.odh.ohio.gov/en/vitalstatistics/legalinfo/adoptfnl.aspx. Other information: Adoption Network Cleveland, 216-325-1000, www.adoptionnetwork.org; Ohio Birthparent Group, www.ohiobirthparents.org.
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http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/03/20/adoptees-line-up-birth-records.html