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Last updated on Wednesday, February 24, 2016
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Indiana adoptees who’ve spent much of their lives wondering who heir birth parents are now have a better chance of finding out.
A bill on its way to the governor's desk would open up nearly 50 years worth of birth records.
It's something many supporters of the bill have worked toward for years.
"I've been doing it for probably 10 years," Pam Kroskie said of the time she spent working on promoting the adoption bill.
She's made the Statehouse her second home during that decade, urging lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow adoptees like herself access to birth records.
As of today, people adopted before 1994 have been denied that information.
State Sen. Brent Steele authored the bill, citing the value of an adoptee knowing their parents medical history as a reason it should be law.
"We had about three to four genetic diseases that were able to determine if you have that propensity by DNA testing," Steele explained. "We now have over 6,000 diseases we know can be tested for genetically, so it's very important."
Even if it's passed, birth mothers still control whether or not their child can contact them.
Birth parents must fill out a form with these four choices:
Educating the public on the bill is Kroskie's next step.
If Gov. Pence signs the bill, it wouldn't go into effect until 2018, giving Kroskie and the state more time to make sure birth mothers are informed about the law.
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