Does alabama have open records?

Question

Does alabama have open records?

Answer 1

Yes it does.   And abortions are down, lives  have not been shattered and there are not thousands of adoptees in Jail for stalking, who'd have thought?   after all is said here about the perils of allowing adoptees (gasp, please no!) their own records, life as we know it has not ended in Alabama

Answer 2

I'm not sure about open records.  I know that when we adopted we had the option of an open adoption or not.  We chose an in-between version.  We allow the bio-parents to contact us through the agency.  In the early years the mother would write about two or three times year.  Then the letters stopped.  One year she gave us a phone number that our daughter could call if she wanted to.  She was probably around 8 or 9 at the time.  I offered to help her call a few times, and she always responded, "Not right now.  Maybe tomorrow."  I guess she was a little afraid.  She really didn't have any solid memories of her.  And the memories she did have were pretty scary for her.  I think she would call now, though.  She's 15 now, and I think she is very curious, and would like to talk to her.  I'm a little uncertain of how it would affect her, but I'd be willing to help her with it if she had the opportunity.

Answer 3

Indeed!  Alabama started sealing records in 1994.  (Yes, you read that right.  Up until 1994 records were NOT sealed.)

In 1998, b*****d Nation led the way to reopen records to adopted citizens.  I'm proud to say that my best friend (who was adopted in Alabama but now lives in California) was the one who actually wrote the bill that got passed into law.  

In Alabama, the original birth certificate (OBC) is made available to adoptee, age 19 or older, upon request.  Birth parents may file a non-binding Contact Preference Form, requesting direct contact with adopted adult, contact through an intermediary, or no contact at all.

Between August 2000 and November 2007, 4,186 requests for OBC's have been made.  189 contact preference forms asking for no contact have been filed.

According to the American Adoption Congress:

"Between 2000 and 2003 (the last year for which national data are available) resident abortions declined 13% in Alabama compared to 2% in the nation as a whole.

**Alabama Center for Health Statistics, Division of Statistical Analysis, Induced Terminations of Pregnancy for Residents of Alabama, 2000-2003;

**Finer and Henshaw, Estimates of U.S. Abortion Incidence 2001-2003, Guttmacher

Institute, August 3, 2006"