| Amendment XIV, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution states: �All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States/ nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within it�s jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.� The fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees all citizens will have equal treatment under the law. Today in Oklahoma, adopted adults are set apart and treated differently than other citizens by the State�s sealed record adoption law. U.S. Constitution Oklahoma Adoption Code �10-7505-6.6. A. 1. For each adoption or annulment of adoption, the attorney or child-placing agency handling the adoption or annulment of adoption shall prepare and the clerk of the court shall certify, within thirty (30) days after the decree becomes final, a certificate of such decree on a form furnished by the State Registrar of Vital Statistics. 2. Before the fifteenth day of each calendar month, the attorney or child-placing agency handling the adoption or annulment of adoption shall forward to the State Registrar the certificates prepared by the attorney or agency handling the adoption or annulment of adoption during the preceding calendar month. If a biological parent has filed an affidavit of nondisclosure pursuant to Section 7503-2.5 of this title, the attorney or agency handling the adoption shall attach the affidavit of nondisclosure to the certificate of such decree and forward it with the certificate to the State Registrar. B. The State Registrar, upon receipt of a certificate of a decree of adoption, shall prepare a supplementary birth certificate in the new name of the adopted person with the names of the adoptive parents listed as the parents. The city and county of the place of birth, the hospital, and the name of the physician shall not be changed from the information provided on the original certificate of birth. If the adopted person was born in a foreign country, the State Registrar shall prepare a certificate of foreign birth. C. The State Registrar shall seal and file the original certificate of birth, if any, with the certificate of decree of adoption and the affidavit of nondisclosure, if any, attached. Upon receipt of a certificate of a court order of annulment of adoption, the State Registrar shall restore the original certificate to its original place in the files. D. For adoptions finalized after November 1, 1997, the State Registrar shall provide an adopted person, at that person's request, with an uncertified copy of the person's original certificate of birth at any time after the adopted person's eighteenth birthday, if all of the following conditions are met: 1. The adopted person has submitted satisfactory proof of identity; 2. The adopted person has submitted an affidavit in which the adopted person states under oath that such person does not have a biological sibling under the age of eighteen (18) who is currently in an adoptive family and whose location is known to the adopted person; and 3. The State Registrar has ascertained that at the time of the request there is no unrevoked affidavit of nondisclosure by a biological parent on file. However, if an unrevoked affidavit of nondisclosure from only one biological parent is on file and the other conditions have been met, the State Registrar may release to the adopted person an uncertified copy of the person's original certificate of birth after deleting from that copy of the birth certificate any identifying information regarding the biological parent who filed the unrevoked affidavit of nondisclosure, including, if necessary, the original surname of the adopted person. E. The State Registrar shall not disclose an original certificate of birth or other sealed adoption records, except as permitted by subsection D of this section, or upon order of the court for good cause shown pursuant to Section 7505-1.1 of this title. The Oklahoma Adoption Code shall be changed to �open on request of an adult adoptee the age of 18 or over" . Anything less than access on demand, without compromise, is a violation of the fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and therefore the conditional affidavit of nondisclosure/whiteout of a birthparent's name shall also be removed from the Adoption Code. To read the entire Oklahoma Adoption Code |
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