Adoption Changes To Affect Ohio

Those who were adopted between 1964 and 1996 would have eas­ier access to state-held birth cer­tifi­cates, under leg­is­la­tion that passed the Ohio House last week.

SB 23 repeals an exist­ing state law that blocked those adoptees from access­ing their files with­out a court order. It also gives bio­log­i­cal par­ents who don’t want their iden­ti­ties known time to redact their names from Ohio Depart­ment of Health adop­tion records.

The leg­is­la­tion passed the House on a vote of 88–2 and will take effect 90 days after the Gov­er­nor adds his sig­na­ture.

Under cur­rent law, adoptees can obtain infor­ma­tion from the Ohio Depart­ment of Health reveal­ing the social and med­ical his­to­ries of their bio­log­i­cal par­ents with­out details that would iden­tify those par­ents.

Indi­vid­u­als adopted before 1964 are allowed unre­stricted access to state records dis­clos­ing the names and other infor­ma­tion about their bio­log­i­cal par­ents and siblings.