Although not about sealed birth certificates due to adoption, this article illustrates what can happen when birth certificates are not "in order." As the US government continues to clamp down on "terrorism" and "illegal immigration" we will see stories of adopted persons denied passports, pensions, security clearances, and even drivers licenses and jobs, due to bc "problems." RIVERSIDE PRESS ENTERPRISE,
December 31, 2007
Lack of birth certificate proves obstacle for Hemet man
By STEVE FETBRANDT
The Press-Enterprise
Most people take their birth certificate for granted. But what if the doctor who delivered you never told the government you entered the world?
You could have problems enrolling in school, acquiring a driver's license or -- especially in California these days -- getting a job.
Hemet resident Joshua Morgan would say, "Welcome to my world."
Carol Bomhard and her son, Joshua Morgan, review a state application to obtain a delayed-filing birth certificate. Morgan can't get a driver's license and other documents, and says he has to work under the table.
A birth certificate legally chronicles the date, time and place you were born. It establishes your identity, paternity, race and national origin. It proves you're old enough to start school and, later, allows you to get a driver's license or state identification card. It also is needed to obtain a Social Security number, passport and, indirectly, a job.
Now 26, Morgan was born at Dr. Nelson Copley's alternative birthing center in Yuba City in Northern California in 1981. Although the doctor gave his mother an uncertified copy of his birth certificate, Copley did not file any paperwork with the Sutter County Clerk-Recorder -- the appropriate vital-statistics agency.
"I've had to deal with getting pulled over and being questioned by police," Morgan said. "I've been taken to jail for driving without a license and not having ID with me.
"If I could just get a registered birth certificate and identification, I wouldn't have this stress on me today. I'd be able to get a job and be productive like everybody else."
In a recent telephone interview, Copley, who closed his medical practice and retired two years ago, acknowledged the oversight and said he would try to remedy the situation immediately.
Carol Bomhard, a disabled mother of five who suffers from fibromyalgia and arthritis, lives with her son in a rental house in Hemet. Morgan's father has not been part of their life, she said.
Bomhard said her son's birth status was never an issue when he was young. School officials registered him for kindergarten based on his uncertified birth certificate. He also was able to get a Social Security number.
"After he lost the card, he couldn't get another one for the longest time because he didn't have a certified birth certificate," she said. "He was denied numerous times in Visalia and once here in Hemet. He also visited the DMV in Tulare County, and they turned him down for both a driver's license and picture ID."
Bomhard said her son just recently convinced the Social Security Administration in Hemet to re-issue his card.
"Various employers have told him they can't hire him because he doesn't have a valid ID or Social Security number or driver's license. He's worked under the table, of course, but nothing real permanent."
Bomhard said her son's biggest fear is getting stopped by police.
"He could be mistaken for an illegal immigrant," she said. "What would they do to him then?"
Bomhard said she originally thought the doctor had registered her son's birth in 1981. Only years later, after discovering otherwise, did she seek a remedy.
"I couldn't afford an attorney," she said, "and Legal Aid told me they don't handle that kind of case. So I was pretty much on my own."
Bomhard said she tried to locate the doctor but was told by someone at the Sutter County courthouse that he had died.
She also applied for a "delayed filing" birth certificate. She submitted her son's fingerprints, baptism certificate, vaccination records and school report cards to the clerk-recorder, but the application, which was forwarded to the state for processing, was returned with an explanation that it did not contain the required supporting evidence.
If a birth occurs outside a hospital, state law requires the physician in attendance, the licensed midwife or either one of the parents to file the birth certificate with the local registrar, said Lea Brooks, spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health. If the state rejects the application for a delayed filing, the applicant can seek a court order.
During 2006, there were about 490 delayed registrations statewide, Brooks said, and 203 court-ordered registrations.
Cindy McMillan, Sutter County assistant clerk-recorder, said the county has no record of Morgan's birth.
"He (the doctor) performed many deliveries but did lousy paperwork. This wasn't the only time," she said. "He'd fill out birth certificates, sign them and hand them to the moms. They'd put them away in a baby book. The doctor never told them he didn't file the original with the county."
McMillan said more than a dozen of Copley's patients ended up in similar straits over the years.
The doctor, who by local accounts is known for driving a black hearse around town with a parrot on his shoulder, said he started the birthing center because the community did not have an adequate hospital maternity facility.
"The hospital had a couple of Army WAC nurses running the place, and it wasn't very family-oriented," he said. "They called it 'The Dungeon.' Rather than going through that ordeal, many mothers chose to deliver at home."
Copley had a special room added to his home/office for that purpose.
"It was a comfortable and safe place for labor and delivery. We had a fetal monitor and it added a lot of safety," the doctor said. "I did 300 (deliveries), and I've still got every chart. I can find this one. It will obviously be a belated filing, but I can do it."
Copley said he knew he was supposed to file the birth certificates in a timely manner.
"We were at great efforts to do that, and I did file hundreds of them," he said. "This has not come up in the last five or six years -- probably in the last 10 years."
Delayed filings are possible but require time and effort, McMillan said.
"You have to send documentation with it, like the doctor's signature if you can get it," she said. "The state will usually accept affidavits from the mother and father, but it has been getting stricter."
Things get trickier when the applicant is older than 12.
"You need two persons with firsthand knowledge of the birth and at least one document which confirms the date and place, such as the copy birth certificate, a certificate of marriage, a U.S. Census record, military record, a hospital record, a Social Security card, voter-registration affidavit, baptismal certificate, notice of birth in the newspaper or school records.
"You fill out the application for a delayed birth certificate and send it along with your other paperwork and $20 filing fee to the Office of State Registrar in Sacramento."
It takes about nine months to process the application.
"They're really slow," she said.
Reach Steve Fetbrandt at or sfetbrandt@PE.com
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