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New Jersey: Governor conditionally vetoes adoption bill

Gov. Chris Christie sent an adoption records bill back to the Legislature Thursday, creating a new hurdle in a 30-year push by advocates to give adoptees access to their birth parents’ identities.

Christie’s conditional veto stakes out his position against the most contentious aspect of the bill, which would allow adoptees to find out the identities of their birth parents against the wishes of those parents. The veto came 45 days after the Legislature passed the bill — the deadline for Christie to take action.

“The decision of any biological parent to seek adoptive parents for a child is an enormously complicated choice, and the protections of anonymity can be a significant consideration when choosing adoption,” Christie said in a statement.

As passed by the Legislature, the bill would have given future adoptees access to their original birth certificate — with the names of their birth parents — once they turn 18. Although birth parents could list their preference not to be contacted by the child they surrendered, adoptees wouldn’t have been required to respect the preference.

Parents who gave children up for adoption prior to passage of the bill would have had one year to opt out and have their names redacted from the certificate.

“I am disappointed, because I think the changes he wants treat adult children like they were little kids,” Sen. Joseph Vitale, one of the bill’s sponsors, told The Associated Press. “The conditional veto places roadblocks to the identification that shouldn’t be in their way.

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