by Kate Burke

About the author: Kate Burke is a former president of the American Adoption Congress, a network of organizations and individuals committed to adoption reform.

The arguments against open records haven’t changed much in the past 20 years, which is both good and bad news. The good news is that if after 20 years the dedicated opposition hasn’t found new reasons to keep records closed, then we can surmise that we know what we will face when an open records bill is being considered in a state legislature. The bad news is that after 20 years we haven’t managed to sufficiently deal with the arguments against open records. Triad members [birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees] have failed to take this highly emotional issue and place...