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Birth parents of children adopted before Aug. 1, 2015 have until the end of 2016 to request their names be removed from the birth certificates, under the New Jersey Adoptees’ Birthright Bill.
If they do, they’ll be asked to give a family health history.
Birth parents will be able to choose their preferred means of contact — directly, through a confidential intermediary or no contact at all.
(The confidential intermediary between birth parents and adoptees – which Christie originally insisted on — was made an option.)
Biological parents of children adopted after Aug. 1, 2015, won’t have the option.
Christie said the law will bring “fundamental, responsible changes” to the way adopted children and adoptive families access birth records in New Jersey.
New Jersey joins nine other states that have unsealed adoptee records since 1995. Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering doing so, as well.
The measure took more than 30 years before lawmakers in Trenton gave it final approval last Thursday.
As a result, adoptees 18 and older will be able to obtain vital family medical and genealogical information.
Christie conditionally vetoed the bill with recommended changes for a second time before he and the state Legislature reached an historic compromise in late April.
The Assembly OK’d the measure, 57-18, followed by a 29-5 Senate vote last Thursday.
PHOTO: Governor’s Office/Tim Larsen
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