NEW JERSEY: Law Would Unseal State Adoption Records, March 9, 2008

GLOUCESTER COUNTY TIMES
March 9, 2008

Law would unseal state adoption records
By Trish G. Graber
tgraber@sjnewsco.com

Alice Miceli was 7 years old when she discovered the Paulsboro couple she called mom and dad were actually her adoptive parents.

But it wasn't until she was 35 that she decided to seek out her birth mother.

Like so many adopted children, Miceli immediately hit a brick wall.

Her adoption was closed and, by law, her original birth certificate unavailable to her.

"A stranger could read my adoption file, but I couldn't," said Miceli, 66, now living in Tabernacle, Burlington County.

But, determined, Miceli tried the adoption agency anyway.

At the Children's Home Society in Trenton, she found out very little. But the smidgen of information they provided would give her access to birth records like nearly no other adoptee in the state.

"Supposedly, I'm Native American," she said.

Miceli petitioned the court to open her records using a federal law the Indian Child Welfare Act which gives Native Americans the right to learn which tribe they were associated with.

But it took 20 years of court battles until her adoption records were finally unsealed to her at the Gloucester County Courthouse in 2000.

Miceli was unable to immediately locate her mother, but through research, she found her family members.

She obtained found birth certificates and death certificates of her grandmother and others.

By 2000, however, most of her mother's family wasn't around to answer her questions.

"If the records were open sooner to me, I may have been able to find her," she said.

Miceli never found her mother, and still doesn't know whether she is partially Native American.

But she hasn't given up.

And she's now advocating for other adoptees, lobbying for a law that would unseal state adoption records which is making its way through the state Legislature.

The bill would provide adoptees access to their original birth certificates at the age of 18. It would also allow the adoptive parents of a minor or descendants of an adoptee to obtain the information.

Advocates who have pushed for the measure say adoptees have the right to know their cultural background as well as their medical history.

"We've done nothing to get born at a time when our parents either believe or were persuaded that they couldn't care for us, and we get punished," said Pam Hasegawa, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Coalition for Adoption Reform and Education (NJCARE).

According to Hasegawa, about 150,000 adoption records remain sealed in New Jersey.

Only seven states allow those from closed adoptions access to their original birth certificates, according to NJCARE. They are Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Kansas, New Hampshire, Oregon and Tennessee.

Typically, amended birth certificates are issued to adopted children, naming their adoptive parents and often times giving the child a new name.

"It's a lie," said Miceli, who learned her birth name was actually Marie Loy.

But opponents of the measure believe that a birth mother was guaranteed the right to privacy when she gave up her child.

"Some of these cases are sad, they involve people being raped by family members," said Patrick Brannigan, director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference. "And they were told that they can go on and live their lives and the child will be nurtured and comfortable."

Brannigan noted that women who give up their children at police stations or hospitals through the state's Safe Haven program are allowed to remain anonymous. Names of those who decide to terminate their pregnancy through abortion are also kept private.

Brannigan has advocated for amending the measure to allow the information to be distributed only when both the birth parents and adoptive parents agree.

But advocates for opening the records to adoptees have shown no signs of making such a concession.

"We adoptees need to know who we are," said Miceli.

The state proposal was approved by a 31-7 vote in the Senate last week; it must still be considered by the Assembly.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, would unearth original birth certificates to adoptees.

However, it would allow a one-time, one year window from the time the law is enacted for birth parents to contact the state to specify that they want their identities kept private.

If their identities are withheld, birth parents would have to disclose their medical, cultural and social history which would be provided to the adoptee upon request.

Birth parents could also stipulate if and how they would like to be contacted.

Recognizing that the bill has been debated for more than 20 years, Vitale said he believes his measure finally gives birth parents who desire it protection.

"However, adoption in New Jersey, as it was first implemented, never provided a guarantee of anonymity to birth parents," Vitale said. "And ultimately, our goal with this legislation is to give adoptees access to basic identifying information."

Miceli has access to that basic information. And over 31 years, she learned that her mother lived in California, was abused by her father and sent away to a girls' home at the age of 14.

She's found cousins and obtained photographs of her grandmother, Lolita Woods, her great, great grandmother and others.

Her brown leather photo album is filled with black and white pictures of her extended family.

But the first two pages are blank spots she hopes will one day be filled with photos of her mother, Lillian.

"You hit brick walls and then you sort of give up," Miceli said. "And all of a sudden the spark starts again."

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