Tag Archives: Court Orders for Birth Certificates

Update to FAQs for Michigan adoptees seeking court orders for original birth records

I have updated my frequently visited “FAQS for court order requests in Michigan for original birth certificates” webpage.* I created this in 2018 for all Michigan-born adoptees and adoptee rights advocates, lawmakers, policymakers, and the media, explaining the process for securing an original birth certificate for adoptees, especially those born between 1945 and 1980. I hope these resources are helpful and provide information that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) will not share with tens of thousands of adoptees, as part of their concerted efforts to discriminate against this class of thousands of persons who were separated from their birth mothers and kin by this inequitable system.

In addition to updating links to MDHHS’s intentionally unhelpful web resources for adoptees, I  added this:

Will MDHHS ignore court orders to release an adoptee’s original birth certificate? [UPDATED NOV. 15, 2024]: Yes, MDHHS will ignore state law and will ignore court orders, based on my experiences requesting two additional copies of my original birth certificate in mid-August 2024. In my case, MDHHS took 80 days to release two copies of my original birth certificate after getting my order for rush service on Aug. 16, 2024. The process, as it occurred with denials and delays, violated not one but two court orders requiring MDHHS to release my vital record, as required by state law. I had to get a state court to intervene after I received a denial letter. The two birth certificates arrived on Nov. 4, 2024. (Note, I already had a standing court order from 2016 when I first won my legal fight for my vital record.) See my essay, video, and links to four other stories and videos documenting MDHHS’s actions that did not comply with state law and defied a Michigan state court and judge.

*Note, I have never made a penny from providing this resource to the public, outside of the incredibly modest sales I have of my book documenting the history of the U.S. adoption with a public health lens and how my story being separated from my biological family helps explain that system and the legal discrimination rooted in law harming millions of adoptees to this day.

Michigan Vital Records likely violates state adoption laws forcing extra court orders

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.