Ohio to unseal 400,000 adoption records
CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - Thousands of adoption files in Ohio will be unsealed Friday, giving citizens who were adopted over a 32-year period access to birth certificates and court order decrees.
An Ohio law kept 400,000 adoptees born between Jan. 1, 1964 to Sept. 19, 1996 from viewing their files – which likely carry the names of their birth mother and possibly father.
The law was modified in 2013 with March 20, 2015 named as the first day adoptees and their lineal descendants may request adoption files. The request form will be available online at
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Adoptive parents have had the past year to choose to redact their names from the records. That option ends Thursday.
Lawmakers in 1963 passed the original bill with the idea that women were more likely to choose adoption over abortion if they were guaranteed confidentiality.
Adult adoptees before 1964 and after 1996 have always been able to access records.
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