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House approves adoption-related bill clarifying rights of putative fathers
Summary
The House passed House Bill 11-74 to clarify rights of fathers of children born to unmarried mothers and to modernize statutory language, passing the bill 65-5 on final passage.
The House approved House Bill 11-74, a measure the sponsor described as a cleanup and clarification of statutes governing the rights and obligations of a father of a child born to an unmarried mother.
Representative Hughes, who explained the bill, said it modernizes statutory language by removing the phrase "illegitimate child" and clarifies how a putative father can publicly acknowledge a child. Under the bill, voluntary contribution to the child's financial support or daily care and publicly holding the child out as one’s own can establish acknowledged father status for legal purposes, Hughes said.
The sponsor described the bill as aligning South Dakota with more than 40 states and codifying existing case law that clarifies what a man must do to assert parental rights in the adoption context. The bill preserves that a woman who chooses adoption or termination of pregnancy need not disclose her sexual history to the court and that the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) remains applicable; Representative Hughes said the statutes remain subject to ICWA.
Representative Jordan said he appreciated the bill’s intent but opposed one line stating a mother’s failure to inform the father of a pregnancy is not a defense to the father’s failure to timely assert paternity; Jordan said because of that sentence he planned to vote no. Representative Poirier asked whether the bill affects ICWA; Hughes replied that state statutes remain subject to the Indian Child Welfare Act and the bill does not alter that federal law’s applicability.
In closing, Hughes said he had worked on these reforms for many years and had decades of adoption practice experience. The clerk reported the final tally as ayes 65, nays 5 and the bill was declared passed.
The bill establishes clearer statutory standards for acknowledging paternity and related rights when the parents are unmarried; transcript remarks indicate the bill is intended to protect both fathers' rights and the dignity and safety of mothers in uncommitted relationships.
