Nevada bill would give more birth info to adoptees

A Nevada Senate panel was urged Friday to pass a bill that would give adoptees more access to records about their birth and adoption -- once they've turned 18.

But the Senate Judiciary Committee also was told that SB267 should be scrapped -- or at least amended -- because of its open-access provision and its elimination of a state register for adoptions.

Proponents included Jean Uhrich, representing adoptee rights organizations Bastard Nation and Nevada Open, who said it's important for adoptees to have access to state-held records of their birth.

Uhrich also said the state register for adoptions was created in 1979 but since then has only matched 176 adoptees with a natural parent. There are about 200,000 Nevada-born adoptees, she added.

Uhrich also said there are private organizations that can do the same job as the state register.

The state "should return to the service of equal access to state-held records of birth," she said, adding, "There's great dignity in adoption. So let's be honest."

Critics included Patricia Glenn of Nevada Right-To-Life, who said the bill would "violate a promise of confidentiality."

Glenn said that for a mother who gave up a child and wanted to forget her past "her whole life could be turned upside down" if that child was able at age 18 to get enough information to seek her out.

Glenn said the laws governing the state register could be revised so that a mother's privacy is still protected but an adopted child could get vital health information more easily.

But "those who counted on confidentiality should have it protected," she said.

Hayley Jarolimek of the Washoe County Department of Social Services said her agency opposes the bill in its current form, adding it's important to avoid an "oversimplification of an exceptionally complicated issue."

But Jarolimek said SB267 might work if amended to allow release of the birth and adoption information from this year forward and not going back in time.

Helen Foley, representing Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, said she was concerned about adoptees looking into old records that might show a mother had been a prostitute or had given up a child after being raped.

Foley added the proposal shouldn't result in people seeing "all the gory details of their lives" being divulged.

Judiciary Chairman Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said the committee needed time to go over the testimony and proposed amendments before bringing the bill back up for committee discussion.