House panel backs bill unsealing Indiana adoption records

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Adoptees born in Indiana during a more than 50-year period would be able to access their currently sealed birth records under a proposal that’s now heading to the Indiana House.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 11-2 Monday to endorse the bill that won Senate approval last month.

The proposal would reverse current law that seals adoption information between 1941 and 1994 that doesn’t have a disclosure consent form. Those records would be open to adoptees beginning in 2018 unless the biological parents file a non-disclosure form with the State Department of Health.

Supporters say the change would help adoptees learn about their parents’ medical history. Rep. Tom Washburne of Evansville said he opposed the bill because the biological parents had an expectation of privacy during that time.