As Georgia lawmakers return to the state capitol this month, advocates are again preparing to push for legislation that would give adoptees in Georgia easier access to their original birth certificates — documents that can be essential links to recovering vital medical histories and long-sought origin stories.
Under current Georgia law, original birth records are “sealed and locked” once an adoption is finalized, making them unavailable without a court order. The state then creates a new birth certificate for the child under their adopted name. Adoptive parents can even change the location of the child’s birth to reflect where they were adopted.
But a bill expected to be introduced during the 2025 session would allow adoptees to simply pay a fee to secure a copy of their original birth record, like other residents of the state. The anticipated legislation will be the latest version of Georgia Senate Bill 64, which was heard by lawmakers last year and in 2023. Although passed by the state Senate both times, the bill was never given a floor vote in the House of Representatives, one of the final steps required to reach the governor’s desk.
Critics of the effort cite privacy concerns, but advocates say adoptees have a fundamental right to their own birth records. The push in Georgia is the latest in a growing national movement that has seen 15 states affirm or restore non-conditional access to their documents since 2019. Last summer, Minnesota became the latest state to grant adoptees access to their original birth certificates.
“It’s not a Democrat issue,” said Gregory Luce, founder of the Adoptee Rights Law Center in Minnesota, which tracks and analyzes legislation affecting adopted people around the country. “It’s not a Republican issue. This is an equal rights issue.”
“A birth certificate belongs to the person that was born. It’s not a birthing certificate. It does not belong to the person giving birth. It’s the verification of birth for that person being born and for them to use.”
— Jamie Weiss, Georgia Alliance for Adoptee Rights
Jamie Weiss, a co-organizer with Georgia Alliance for Adoptee Rights, said her organization is again behind the latest legislative effort. Her struggle to learn the details of her birth has driven her advocacy work. She was adopted when she was five days old by a couple that raised her in the Atlanta metro area.
Weiss learned of her adoption at a young age. But she knew very little else and was always curious. While away at college and with easy access to the internet, Weiss went online to try to find her biological family. With few clues, the search was incredibly difficult.
During a 12-year hunt for details, Weiss learned that she’d actually been born in Virginia, not Georgia. Eventually, her persistence led her to find and reunite with her biological family. She’s known them now for more than a decade.
But she still isn’t able to obtain a copy of her original birth certificate. Like Georgia, Virginia restricts adoptees’ access to their birth records. Weiss’ arduous experience cemented her belief that everyone deserves access to the earliest details of their life.
“I became passionate about helping other people,’’ Weiss said. “We have this singular group of people who are being denied the right to their own birth certificate due to the status of how they came to be with the family that raised them.”
In 2022, members of Weiss’ organization met with state Sen. Randy Robertson, hoping to solicit his support for their effort to change the law.
Robertson has three children, one of whom is adopted. He agreed to sponsor the 2023 and 2024 bills, though sponsors of the 2025 version have not been announced yet.
“I just felt it wasn’t right that because you’re adopted, you’re made, basically, into a second-class citizen when it comes to getting a copy of your original birth certificate,” Robertson said.
Luce is also the executive director of the nonprofit Adoptees United, which has provided technical support to Georgia Alliance for Adoptee Rights. He, too, has a firsthand understanding of the difficulties faced.
Adopted in Washington, D.C. as an infant, Luce was 35 years old when he first sought a copy of his original birth certificate. He didn’t want it for reunification or medical reasons, he said. He just wanted it because it was his.
Luce is a lawyer, but even so, he said, he was “shocked to find out how hard’’ the process was. It took two attempts and years of court proceedings before he finally held an unredacted copy in his hands.
“It’s really hard to explain, but having a name and a place and an actual recording of a birth that has been secret and unknown for years is incredibly meaningful,” Luce said.
By acknowledging “the people who were directly responsible for my birth,’’ Luce continued, “it literally located me on this earth.’’
There weren’t always laws denying access to original birth certificates in Georgia and other states. Until 1961, adult adoptees in Georgia could obtain their original birth records without a court order, according to the Georgia Alliance for Adoptee Rights. But in the decades that followed, laws became more restrictive around the country as privacy concerns for biological parents grew — particularly for unwed mothers who were often condemned for bearing children outside of marriage.
Today, 17 states including Georgia fully restrict access to original birth certificates. Another 19 partially restrict access by redacting identifying information on the documents.
Georgia Alliance for Adoptee Rights organizers hope their third attempt at getting legislation passed will be successful. The new bill is expected to be formally introduced during this legislative session, which began on January 13. It will be brought forward under a new name, but Weiss said she expects it to contain similar language.
“A birth certificate belongs to the person that was born,” Weiss said. “It’s not a birthing certificate. It does not belong to the person giving birth. It’s the verification of birth for that person being born and for them to use.”
