Signed and Unsealed, New York Delivers on Its Promise for Open Birth Records

The day she turned 18, Annette O’Connell started sitting on her front stoop waiting for the mailman. Every day she waited, and every day he had the same response: “Nothing today, Annette.” Still, she waited. Nothing ever came. She wasn’t waiting for a love letter or a college acceptance letter. She was waiting for a piece of paper that would tell her who she was.

It wasn’t until January, after New York State passed the Clean Bill of Adoptee Rights law allowing adoptees over 18 unrestricted access to their sealed birth certificates, that O’Connell, now 52, was able to hold that piece of paper. She filmed the entire thing on Facebook live.

“Just holding the envelope in my hand when the UPS man came was completely overwhelming,” O’Connell says now, recalling the event. O’Connell has spent years advocating for these records to be opened and is one of the founders of New York Adoptee Rights Coalition “I could cry just thinking about it.”

Yet, O’Connell is just one of the thousands of adopted children in New York State who has spent their entire life not knowing basic medical and personal information about themselves.  This law, which passed on January 15th and was sponsored by Assembly member David Weprin and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, has major implications for adoptees born in New York. While it doesn’t provide access to the original medical files, it does give adoptees important clues— names, dates and locations— that can help them track down more information.

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