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Iowa adoptee's
records remain
sealed; appeal planned
by Michelle
Konieczny
[Coralville, IA -
April 29, 2000]Steven J. Drahozal, 28 of Coralville, learned on
Saturday that his petition to unseal his own adoption records had
been denied by an Iowa District Court.
Drahozal, a law student in the midst of finals, filed a petition
to unseal his own adoption records in the
Johnson County District Court on February 29 of this year. He
represented himself and presented evidence
in a hearing held March 23, 2000 before Judge Douglas S. Russell.
He alleged in his petition that the Iowa law sealing adoption
records is unconstitutional. On April 28, Judge
Russell issued his decision denying Drahozal's petition. Judge
Russell found that the Iowa law that denies
adoptees, adoptive parents and biological parents access to the
records after they have been sealed, did not
violate Drahozal's First Amendment Rights, nor his rights to
privacy and to Equal Protection. Drahozal plans
to appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.
"This is obviously a setback in my search to find my
biological family," says Drahozal. "It is frustrating
because I know of many Iowans involved in adoption that want to
reunite families separated by adoption.
Both the legislature and the courts thwart those of us that
attempt to use the legal system to contact each
other. Decisions like this encourage members of the adoption
triad to utilize illegal means for the basic task
of contacting our biological families. This is a civil rights
issue affecting thousands of Iowans and it is time
that the legal system recognized that adoptees are citizens
too."
Drahozal is in his final year of study at the University of Iowa
College of Law. While writing a paper for an
adoption seminar earlier this year, he became convinced that
sealed adoption records violate the rights of
those involved in adoption. He decided to put his legal education
to work for him and for other Iowans and
challenge sealed records in the state. There is no other reported
case interpreting the sealed records
provisions of the Iowa code. Decisions in other states have
produced varying results.
There are currently measures before the Alabama, Missouri, and
Rhode Island state legislatures considering
allowing adoptees access to their own records. Tennessee opened
records to adoptees in 1996. Oregon
voters passed an initiative in 1998 that opened adoption records
to adoptees.
Subsequent lawsuits prevented the measure from going into effect.
The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld
the law and the Oregon Supreme Court declined to hear the case
but granted a stay on April 21, 2000
preventing the law from going into effect for 21 days. Alaska
allows adult adoptees to access their original
birth certificate, and Kansas has never denied this right to it's
adoptees.
Drahozal maintains a website dealing with legal issues
surrounding open access to adoption records at:
http://www.air-cap.net/adoptionrights .
A complete transcript of the Judge's decision can be found here:
http://www.air-cap.net/adoptionrights/ruling.htm
Editor's Note: Steve is an active member of the Open Records
Activism Community, whose help is greatly
appreciated by his friends here at TAAP and ABORN. We're pulling
for you Steve! Get back in there and tell
'em from all of us... "Our Records, Our Right".
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