Senate approves bill granting adoptees access to birth records with notification period; 30‑4 vote

The Idaho Senate on March 18 approved House Bill 47 to expand adoptees’ access to original birth records to all adoptees, regardless of when the adoption occurred. Sponsor Senator Shippey said the bill “ensures equal treatment for all Idaho adoptees” and provides a confidential, structured process for requests.

Under the bill as described on the floor, an adult adoptee who requests birth records triggers a 30‑day notification window during which the Department of Vital Statistics will attempt to contact any birth parent who has registered contact information. The floor explanation listed three options available to a birth parent: provide a preferred method of contact, request no contact, or request redaction of the name. If an adoptee submits another request within five years, the process repeats.

Senator Wintrow opposed the bill on privacy grounds, saying the state should protect a birth parent’s desire for a sealed record and arguing the bill should be opt‑in for birth parents rather than making access available by default. Supporters and the sponsor countered that modern DNA databases already make anonymity uncertain and asserted the bill balances adoptee access with safeguards.

Senate roll call recorded 30 ayes, 4 nays and 1 absent; the bill will return to the House. During floor remarks Senator Shippey read a letter from a woman identified by the sponsor only as “Gloria,” describing decades‑long desire to find the child she relinquished in 1968; the letter was entered into floor debate as an example of the adoptee perspective.

The bill does not remove a birth parent’s ability to register their contact preferences in the Idaho adoption registry; the floor explanation said the measure extends an existing process that the sponsors said already applies to post‑2022 adoptions to all prior adoptees.