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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana Senate Thursday approved a bill that would open birth records to some 350,000 Hoosiers adopted between 1941 and 1993.
Senate Bill 352 was sent to the House of Representatives on a 46-3 vote. Advocates say the proposal follows those in 14 other states that have opened records.
Authoring Sen. Brent Steele, R-Bedford, said the measure would entitle people adopted during the timeframe the same rights as those adopted before and after, who access to those records. Steele said adoption laws the preclude access are “antiquated” and were enacted before science found genetic components in nearly 6,000 diseases.
Steele noted that birth mothers who don’t want to have contact with the child they placed for adoption will be able to file no-contact orders. But he noted that in states that have opened records, only about 0.1 percent of mothers have filed such orders.
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