The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has received my request I filed on August 13, 2023, for two additional copies of my original birth record.
To date the Vital Records office that handles these requests has not replied to me after more than three weeks after having cashed my check for the records on August 22, 0224.
However, it appears MDHHS and the Third Circuit Court of Detroit are coordinating my request, even though the court has no need to involved, as it issued me a court order already in June 2016 to force MDHHS to release copies of my original birth record. That court order has no time limit or other conditions for an adoptee to get additional future copies of their original birth certificate, as that statute is written.
Because this is an important policy issue impacting many adoptees in Michigan and other states, I am documenting this publicly.
I published my second video on this topic on August 27, 2024.
By doing this I am showing how Michigan’s public health office, MDHHS, manages vital records requests by adult adoptees, specifically those who have already secured a legal court order forcing the state to release a copy of an adoptee’s original birth certificate without any barrier such as requests for additional court orders for duplicate copies.
The Third Circuit Court in Detroit also has a unique role with adoptee birth record cases in Michigan because it handles adoptees’ request for court orders for the many thousands of adoptees born in Detroit, especially at Crittenton General Hospital.
This was one of the largest maternity hospitals and adoption mills in U.S. history that handled thousands of adoptions between 1933 and 1974, when it closed.
This court played a key role in my effort to get my birth record held improperly for decades, even after I had met my birth kin and my mother had sent in a signed consent form to release my birth certificate in 1989. The court sided with me in late June 2016 to compel MDHSS to unseal my original birth certificate 27 years after I found my birth parents.
I contacted the clerk at the court, after I had mailed in my request for two more copies of my original birth records, as a courtesy matter in case I might encounter delays “bureaucratic snafus” at MDHHS—an agency with a reputation for denying Michigan adoptees any assistance in managing record requests, intentionally. I knew MDHH might not issue additional copies of my birth record.
A clerk at the court told me by phone and through email correspondence that I would have to get another court order to get additional copies of my original vital record, even though this is not required by law. (See my video I published on this on August 15, 2024.)
Yet, no provision exists in law requiring that.
MDHHS’s decision to not reply to my request for rush order service, I believe, is intentional to prevent legal accountability.
The law is clear, however.
The actions that MDHHS is taking now, through the court, is beyond the scope of state law, and they are denying basic legal rights to Michigan-born adoptees illegally by actions to me and others for what I have heard is now years.
The clerk I am working with is thoughtful, and I think their staff just want me to get my original birth record copies without grief. MDHHS, by forcing me to get another court order, is continuing to establish legal precedent for treatment of all Michigan born adoptees not defined in statute or even public communications. They seek additional power that is not written into law, and it is a harmful legal precedent for this agency to enforce.
Also, MDHHS knows who I am. They have a file on me, and I know this because I’ve read emails where I have been discussed by their officials.
I published those public records in my book, You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are, and online. They also know I have now been covered multiple times by Michigan Radio discussing the injustice of current adoption laws in Michigan denying thousands of adoptees basic human rights.
Once I get news on my latest court order request I will publish more videos documenting what to date is continued denial of basic legal rights and a violation of state law by the state agency that holds vital records for Michigan adoptees.