A hearing on SB1274 has been set for Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in the Senate Health Committee. It is scheduled to begin at 1:30pm. Here is the basic info, with more to come as the hearing date nears.
What to Know: the Very Basics
This is the first hearing on the bill, and it will be heard in the Health Committee. In general, the committee covers issues relating to public health, including vital records.
The focus of SB1274 in the Committee will be on the bill’s direct connection to vital records, which is overseen by the California Department of Public Health. While arguments will no doubt come up about “privacy” and the California state constitution, those arguments are generally outside the scope of this committee.
What to Do: Register Your Position
You can register your position through the California Position Letter Portal here. You can also email the committee at SHEA.Committee@senate.ca.gov, though the position portal is generally the better choice to register support for the bill. If you don’t know how to sign up or submit a letter through the portal, we have a short video.
What to Say: Keep it Short and to the Point
When submitting a position letter, keep the message short and direct. Introduce yourself, state your connection to adoption, and request a DO PASS recommendation from the committee. Feel free to add a few more details about yourself or this issue, but generally try to keep it to around a half-page of type. And, importantly, make it about a single document: an adopted person’s own birth record. Here is an example of a fictional adopted person writing in support:
My name is Kai Sheppard, and I was born and adopted in California in 1970. As a California adoptee I request at DO PASS recommendation on SB1274. This bill would do one simple thing: restore the rights of all California-born adopted people to get a single document that has always been theirs: their own original birth records—nothing more, nothing less. This bill is important to me and to my family. Please support SB1274 with a DO PASS recommendation.
Who’s On the Committee
Members of the committee include nine Democrats and two Republicans:
Steven M. Glazer (D-Contra Costa)
Lena A. Gonzalez (D-Long Beach)
Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield)
Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield)
Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara)
Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley)
Janet Nguyen (R-Huntington Beach), Vice-Chair
Richard Roth (D-Riverside), Chair
Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park)
Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles)
Senator Scott D. Wiener (D-San Francisco)
About the Bill (SB1274)
SB1274 is an incredibly simple bill with a powerful promise. The bill strikes out discriminatory provisions in current California law and simply adds:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the State Registrar shall provide to an adopted person who is 18 years of age or older and who was born in this state, or to a direct line descendant of a deceased adopted person, a copy of the adopted person’s original birth certificate and any evidence of the adoption previously filed with the State Registrar.
Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman is the bill’s lead author.
I was adopted in 1967 from Sacramento County. As a adoptee we have a right to see our birth certificates, to know who we are, where we came from and what medical issues that we may have. Imagine going to the doctors and when they ask for family medical history putting down N/A (adopted). No one has the right to keep this information from adoptees.
Please release our records, other states have. I was adopted in 1955 and did find my biological family through ancestry but being adopted, living that life, we deserve to know who we were or where we came from. Please release our records.
Where is the link to the portal? I tried clicking “here” above in the paragraph but it didn’t work. Where do I find it?
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve readded the link and it is also here: https://calegislation.lc.ca.gov/Advocates/