SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah House of Representatives on Feb. 6 adopted a substitute to House Bill 129, a measure that would make it easier for adult adoptees to see their original birth certificates.

Representative Kory Ward, sponsor of the bill, told colleagues the substitute lets an adult adoptee request access to the certificate without first filing a petition and that a birth parent who reasonably believes disclosure would cause harm may file a petition to keep the record sealed. “It’s their record. It belongs to them,” Ward said during floor remarks.

The substitute was prepared after committee input, Ward said, to preserve narrowly tailored protections for birth parents while expanding routine access. He described the change as aligning the law with the principle used in other family-law matters: decisions should follow what is best for the child, and, as an adult, the adoptee should have access to their own record.

Representative Shepherd, speaking as an adoptee who had searched to find an original birth certificate, described why access mattered personally and thanked the sponsor for including protections in the substitute. Representative Auxerre recalled being the committee’s no vote and said the amendment addressed privacy concerns she had raised.

Floor action: the House adopted the substitute and passed the bill for transmittal to the Senate. The bill’s sponsor waived summation before the vote.

The measure addresses the state’s current process, under which adult adoptees could petition a judge for access; the substitute moves to automatic access with an explicit judicial petition pathway for birth parents seeking continued sealing when they show a risk of harm.

The bill will go to the Senate for further consideration.

Less central details: the sponsor noted that adoptions shifted in the mid-1970s from universally closed to an open-or-closed system, and that current code allows an adoptee to seek a judge’s review; the substitute changes the front-end process for adults seeking their records.