Utah: Lawmaker pushes registry to protect unwed dads’ rights

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Utah lawmaker wants the state to stop waiting for Congress to act on a national putative father registry and move ahead with an electronic, confidential registry that unwed fathers, adoption agencies and attorneys — and potentially other states — could use to make and search paternity filings in adoption cases.

Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake, told members of the Health and Human Services Interim Committee on Wednesday the proposal is aimed at providing "equity and justice" to unwed fathers, particularly those from other states who want to be involved in a child’s life but may not know where the mother plans to give birth and place the infant for adoption.

Some legal and adoption experts have advocated for a national putative father registry as the only way to protect unwed fathers’ rights and interstate adoptions. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., made several attempts at legislation to create such a registry by law but has so far been unsuccessfully gained little support for the idea. At least one group — Fathers & Families — opposes such registries on grounds they which it sees as designed to make it more difficult for fathers to assert rights; the onus, the group believes, should be on a birth mother and an adoption agency to identify and provide notice to unwed fathers about an adoption plan.'