by Bastard Nation

About the author: Bastard Nation is an organization that promotes the civil rights of adoptees, including the right to obtain access to personal records.

Conditional access legislation, which includes disclosure vetoes, contact vetoes, and intermediary systems, has often been used by adoption reformers in their efforts to try to win over legislators and pass bills. Some reformers claim that these conditional access bills serve as intermediate steps to true open records legislation. History, however, tells a different story. Once laws are passed, legislators are reluctant to revisit the issue of records legislation, which can result in future legislative changes being stalled for years, or even decades. Once they do revisit the issue, there is no indication that legislators are more inclined to openness...