EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was modified at 11:25 a.m. Wednesday, to correct a mistake made in the original version, where a witness testified that providing birth certificates won't provide medical information, but the word "not" was dropped from the as-published and posted story.
Years ago, Marge Wiederholt, of Farmington, gave birth to a daughter and gave the baby up for adoption.
"I had no idea what I was doing at that time," she told a Senate committee Tuesday. "You don't think about the years to come - it's like your child is out there, and you don't know anything."
Michele Newell, of Dardenne Prairie, was adopted as a baby in upstate New York and moved to Missouri when she was 18.
"My birth mother came looking for me when I was 23," she told the committee. The mother had developed breast cancer and wanted Newell to know.
Both women were among seven people testifying for a proposed law to let adult Missouri-born adoptees have access to their original birth certificates with their birth parents' names included.
Under current law, once an adoption is final the original birth certificate becomes a sealed record, and is replaced with a certificate showing the adoptive parents' names.
State Rep. Don Phillips, R-Kimberling City, sponsors the bill to change that. He was adopted at 7 months old and now has reconnected with his birth parents.
He told the Senate's Seniors, Families and Children Committee the House-passed bill includes changes sought by opponents, who argue birth parents were promised confidentiality when they agreed to put their babies up for adoption.
A contact-preference form would give birth parents the option to refuse to be contacted by the adoptee, to be contacted by a go-between or to have direct contact, Phillips said.
"What I don't have is a starting point to be able to look for something, and an original birth certificate would give me that," said Steve Hamblin, of Cape Girardeau.
He and his older daughter have heart problems, but he can't provide her with family information. And his younger daughter now is pregnant with twins, and "she's full of questions I can't answer," he said.
Phillips said the medical history information included with the contact form may be the best part of the bill.
But Christine Corcoran of Lutheran Family and Children's Service, St. Louis, told the committee her group has provided adoptions for 148 years and providing original birth certificates will not provide medical information.
Heather Dodd, founder of the Missouri Adoptee Rights Movement, told the Senate committee: "The beautiful thing about (the proposed law) is that it is the result of an ongoing, collaborative effort (among) adopted adults, birth parents and adoptive parents to meet the needs of all parties involved."
Deborah Donatti, of Owensville, has adopted three children and got copies of their original birth certificates before the adoptions were final and the records were closed.
Her daughter, Danika - who will be 19 next week - told the committee: "Growing up - for 18 years - I had no idea who they were as a person, even though they lived just a town over, five to 10 minutes from me ... because they requested not to have contact, even though it was an open adoption."
As she told a House committee two months ago, Danika said knowing the names of her birth parents gave her a chance to spend time with her birth-father before he died from a spinal disease two months after she met him.
Now, she said, "I have a positive relationship with my adoptive parents and my birth mother."
Michael Meehan, executive director of Good Shepherd Children and Family Services, St. Louis, said his agency has "100 or so years of records for, perhaps, 10,000 adoptions."
Although he can't speak for all agencies, Meehan said, "At least for us, it was the understanding of particularly birth mothers - but also our adoptive families - that their identities would be held in confidence. ... Having a baby out of wedlock was, back in the day and not too terribly long ago, shameful."
Annette Driver, of Jefferson City, last year "found" the daughter she gave up 38 years ago. Phillips' proposed law, she said, is "really about bringing families together who want to be together," while the current laws are antiquated and set up to keep people apart.
The bill's supporters said adoption agencies don't want to change the laws because they make money on the current system.
But, Corcoran testified, her agency last year did 20 searches for specific, named individuals, and "spent about 1,600 hours on those searches and our total fee for the year - we brought in $5,600. I promise you, it is not a money-maker."
The proposed law requires an eight-month public education period, to inform people of the new process for searching for birth parents.