Awhile back before same-sex marriage, certain states refused to issue amended birth certificates after an adoption in the names of both same-sex parents.  In essence the refusal to amend a birth certificate  was a  state’s tacit way of disapproving of the adoption.

Today that is no longer the case for same-sex adoption and birth certificates as far as I know for gay married couples.

However,  the issuance of birth certificates is still a thriving tool in another area of law – children born in the United Staes to parents who are not US Citizens.

In THIS recent NY Times article, a mother who gave birth in the US but was here illegally learned she could not satisfy the Texas requirements for a Texas birth certificate meaning she would be unable to prove her child’s US citizenship.