INDIANAPOLIS — Pre-1994 adoption records soon could be made available to adopted children seeking to contact their birth parents, under legislation approved 43-5 Thursday by the Indiana Senate.
Senate Bill 91, co-sponsored by state Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, opens on July 1, 2018, the records of adoptions completed between 1941 and 1993, which currently are unavailable to adopted children unless a birth parent requests otherwise.
The legislation, which goes to the House, changes the default to match post-1993 adoptions by making the old records open unless the Indiana State Department of Public Health is instructed to keep them closed.
A birth parent seeking to maintain control of adoption records would file a contact preference form indicating whether he or she welcomes contact from a child given up for adoption, prefers contact only through an intermediary or refuses all contact.
State Sen. Brent Steele, R-Bedford, the sponsor, said given what we now know about the role of genetics in determining an individual's health outcomes, it is more important than ever that adopted children be permitted to know the identities of their birth parents.
However, state Sen. Carlin Yoder, R-Middlebury, who voted against the proposal, said changing to open records violates the agreement the state made with parents who gave up their children for adoption, and who might have made a different choice if they knew they could get an awkward knock on the door years later.
The Senate last year approved a similar proposal, 46-3, but it failed to pass the House after aides to Republican Gov. Mike Pence raised concerns about what was then a one-year period to file a "no contact" preference.