I published this video explaining how I Iearned that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services violated a court order by sending me an adulterated birth record copy in 2016, not the actual original version–an intentional act of deception. Click on image to see the video.
This weekend, I closely compared the July 2016 and November 2024 versions of my original birth certificate sent to me from the state of Michigan, each after protracted and time-consuming court processes that should never have occurred.
The “same records,” which should have been identical, were not. It turns out I was sent an incomplete original birth record in July 2016, and I can document that now with these official documents.
Background:
My delays in getting copies of original birth certificate happened only because I was surrendered at birth as an adoptee, denied basic legal and human rights in Michigan and as a citizen of the United States.
I’ve known my birth mother and my birth families since 1989, and my birth mother signed a consent form to release all of my vital records and sent that to what is called the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) in April 1989. The state health department and its vital records staff in 1989 released some records on file, but not my original birth certificate. Their documented practices of hiding my birth identity and birth information—and as I can now prove, again, deceiving me about that—continues to this day
My latest request for my original birth record was fulfilled 80 days after my rush order request for that record in August 2024. The delay and initial denial of my original birth record request had no statutory justification.
On October 4, 2024, MDHHS received a second court order issued on September 19, 2024, on top of the original court order sent in June 2016, and even then MDHHS refused to comply with the court order on October 7, 2024, with a denial letter.
(Note: Only one court order is ever needed for a Michigan-born adoptee to order one, two, or 10 birth certificates, as there is no law restricting the number that can be issued once a judge orders the health department and its staff to comply with the law with a single court order, if the court sides with the adoptee compelling the state to surrender the adoptee’s true record of birth.)
The court had to intervene personally, by its staff, to force MDHHS to release my original birth certificate, again. Those two copies finally arrived on November 4, 2024.
I am only providing a photo of part of the header section of my most recently released birth record copies to prevent bad actors from stealing identifying information.
Latest Two Birth Record Copies Had Many More Birth Facts:
This weekend, I paused and compared the two versions of my original birth record, as the last two months were too busy to focus on the records.
To my surprise, or should I say, not surprise, I saw that the most recent two original birth certificates I ordered and that arrived on November 4, 2024, had more data. The 2016 version left off critical information that the state was legally required to release to me almost nine years ago—by order of a state court.
The information was not innocuous, and the omission was not by accident.
The data were the most critical information aside from my birth and birth mother’s names—namely my health status and birth mother’s health status at the time I arrived in the world from my mother’s womb.
My 2016 original birth record copy, which I now confirmed is an incomplete record (in violation of a court order), did not contain these critical pieces of my birth that are placed on the birth records of all people in Michigan at the time I was born in the mid-1960s:
- The length of my mother’s pregnancy.
- My birth weight.
- Information if my mother was checked for syphilis (this was likely a biased law against women).
- Information about any complications with my mother’s pregnancy.
- The types of surgical procedures, if any, during my mother’s delivery.
- Any birth injury data to the infant.
- Any congenital-related health issues to the infant.
Former State Registrar Glenn Copeland, who signed the first copy of my original birth record that was not a true and accurate copy, in violation of a court order.
In short, all of the pertinent birth and data about my health and my mom’s health at the time of my birth were intentionally omitted in the birth record copy signed by then-State Registrar Glenn Copeland as a “true and correct representation of birth facts,” and then sent to me. In short, the State Registrar in 2016, along with MDHHS, lied in signing an official vital record sent to me upon order of a Michigan court. And I have legal proof, with official state signatures, that what they sent was not in compliance with the court in 2016.
The second time I received my records, the health workers must have forgotten what they did not include the last time, because they apparently didn’t keep a record of the July 2016 birth certificate record they mailed to me. Otherwise, they would have adulterated two copies just sent to me this time, like they did in July 2016. (I say adulterated, because I can now compare two copies of the same “original” that are attested to by two separate State Registrars.)
(See my video describing MDDHS’s official act violating a Michigan court order.)
A System Built on Lies and Deception Continues its Worst Ways
I am never surprised by the dishonesty and sheer audacity of public health systems and its officers at the highest level to cheat, lie to, and deceive adoptees when it comes to the most basic document all persons deserve, their original birth certificates. But as my case shows, our records are hidden and then adulterated by the public health staff ordered by a court to comply with state law.
I expect lies and dishonesty at every turn from anyone involved in the U.S. adoption system, based on the weight of carefully researched and published evidence and reporting to date, and my own decades of being lied to and deceived.
Yet, this latest example is still hurtful beyond measure.
The health and public health “professionals” who perpetrate this harm, repeatedly, do this on purpose.
They know what they do, and they do it with impunity.
Sadly, I have yet to see any reports or coverage of any official accountability for this ongoing malfeasance. Sadly, media, lawmakers, policymakers, or oversight bodies like state auditors (I have contacted that office in Michigan) do not care about the harm, lies, and illegal activities like violating court orders issued in that state.
As for adoptees, we’re on our own, and we continue to have no friends but the mountains.
(Author’s note: I updated this essay on January 11, 2025, with a link and image to my new video explaining the intentional deception by MDHHS when it sent me an incomplete original birth record in July 2016, violating a court order that I receive a true, original, and complete copy of what has always been mine as a basic human right, despite state laws still denying me access to my original identity vital record.)