By a unanimous vote Wednesday, the Colorado Board of Health changed the rules to get a delayed birth certificate in the state.
The change might at first appear to be a small tweak, but it amounts to a life-changing difference for the small handful of people unable to register under the state’s current regulations.
Under those previous rules, someone whose birth was not registered in the first year of life had to submit two independent official documents. Those documents needed to list the applicant’s full name, date and location of birth, as well as the names of the parents. Crucially, one of those records needed to come from the person’s first 10 years of life. For someone without records of their early life, the state provided no recourse for obtaining a legal birth certificate.
The rules passed by the Board of Health Wednesday removed the requirement of submitting a document created in the first 10 years of life and replaced it with a requirement to submit a document created at least 10 years before the person’s application date. It goes into effect in 30 days.
“I cannot overstate what a massive change this will be for our clients,” said Casey Sherman, an attorney with the nonprofit Colorado Legal Services. “It essentially unlocks all the benefits to American citizenship where that door was previously closed to people.”
The change was prompted — at least in part — by a lawsuit from Sherman’s client, Abigail McKinnon. McKinnon asserts she was born in Woodland Park in 1994 to deeply religious parents who didn’t believe in registering their children for government documentation. The lawsuit claims Colorado’s rules were unconstitutional, but the suit was paused in January when the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced the proposed rule change.
Sherman previously said McKinnon would end her lawsuit if the rule is adopted and she’s able to obtain a delayed birth certificate.
While celebrating the rule change, Sherman said she still has a handful of clients who still won’t be helped by the change. She advocated to the Board of Health Wednesday for further expansion of the rules to allow for a judicial review of delayed birth certificate cases denied by CDPHE.
Members of the board expressed interest in allowing judicial review, but said allowing it would require action by the state legislature.
