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A
new Florida statute requires that mothers who seek to put their
children up for adoption must first make a substantial effort to
notify their children's fathers. To those who believe that
fathers should have the right to be an integral part of their
children's lives, this is a reasonable law. Yet to the National
Organization for Women it is an "outrage." And to Jeanne Tate,
executive vice president of the Florida Association of Adoption
Professionals, the statute's requirements are "horrible,"
"degrading," and "reminiscent of The Scarlet Letter."
What is truly an outrage is NOW's and the FAAP's lack of
consideration for fathers and children. Agonizing and emotional
custody battles between biological and adoptive parents--like
those in the well-publicized Baby Richard and Baby Jessica
cases--demonstrate the need for an effective notification system
which can prevent children from being adopted against their
biological fathers' wishes.
Although previous laws required birth mothers to place notices
in local newspapers concerning pending adoptions, the new
statute, enacted last year, requires that these notices be more
detailed and comprehensive. Now a mother who is seeking to put
her child up for adoption and who is not in contact with the
child's father must, as a last resort, attempt to notify the
father by placing a notice in an appropriate newspaper. The
notice must contain the age, race, hair and eye color, and
approximate height and weight of the child's mother and also of
"any person the mother reasonably believes may be the father."
NOW, the FAAP, and other opponents of the new statute argue that
its notification requirements can be humiliating for women who
have had multiple sex partners and who are unsure of the
identity of the father. While this is a legitimate complaint, it
is unreasonable to suggest that a birth mother's embarrassment
is more important than a father's right to raise his child.
In addition, depriving a child of knowledge of his parentage can
have damaging medical and emotional implications. For example,
for children facing life-threatening illnesses such as cancers
requiring bone-marrow transplants or other medical emergencies,
knowing their biological heritage can be a matter of life or
death. Also, many adopted children, no matter how much they may
love their adoptive parents, will one day want to seek out their
biological parents.
The statute's opponents also argue that a woman who has been
raped should not have to give notification that she is giving
the child up for adoption. This is a valid concern but one which
has already been addressed by the Palm Beach County circuit
court. In May, the court issued a ruling which declared that
the statute's notification requirements are an unconstitutional
invasion of privacy for women who became pregnant as a result of
sexual assault.
The underlying assumption made by the opponents of the
notification statute is that men do not want their children.
While some parents (both male and female) are irresponsible,
often the problem in adoptions is not that unwed biological
fathers do not care about their children, but that they do not
know of their existence.
In fact, many unwed fathers struggle desperately to remain a
part of their children's lives. They are often thwarted by
mothers who find them inconvenient, and family court systems and
policies which do little to enforce their right to be a
meaningful part of their children's lives.
Detailed notices in newspapers are a reasonable (although
imperfect) solution to the father notification problem. A
better alternative is for the state to allow women to use its
Parent Locator System--the system used to track down parents who
owe child support. State systems are tied into the Federal
Parent Locator System, and they are often remarkably effective
at finding parents where other agencies fail.
The locator system would help women find their children's
fathers and thus reduce the need for the public notices in
newspapers. Since this system is routinely used to track down
fathers who owe child support, why can't it be used to unite
fathers and their children?
This column first appeared in the
Washington Times (8/22/02)
Glenn Sacks writes about gender issues from the male
perspective. He can be reached at Glenn@GlennSacks.com. Dianna Thompson is a founder and executive director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children (www.acfc.org). She can be contacted by e-mail at DThompson2232@aol.com.
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