Hawaii: Law Bars Release of Obama Birth Certificate

A privacy law that shields birth certificates has prompted Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie to abandon efforts to dispel claims that President Obama was born outside Hawaii, his office says. The state's attorney general told the governor that privacy laws bar him from disclosing an individual's birth documentation without the person's consent. "There is nothing more that Gov. Abercrombie can do within the law to produce a document," said the governor's spokeswoman. "Unfortunately, there are conspirators who will continue to question the citizenship of our president."

Abercrombie, who was a friend of Obama's parents and knew him as a child, launched an investigation last month into whether he can release more information about the president's Aug. 4, 1961, birth. But now he's hit a dead end. Hawaii's health director said in 2008 and 2009 that she had seen and verified Obama's original vital records, and birth notices in two Honolulu newspapers were published within days of Obama's birth at Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu. (More birthers stories.)