Pact, An Adoption Alliance - Adoption Laws

Adoption Laws - Other States

Procedures:

The choice of adoptive parents must be made only by the birth mother or birth parents.
If the child is to be born outside the adoptive parent's state, the adoptive parents can satisfy interstate requirements by having a home study completed prior to the birth of the child.
The attorney appointed by the adoptive parents will coordinate the interstate compact work with the birth parents' attorney.

Expenses:

Financial assistance to the birth parents must comply with the laws of both the state in which the birth parents reside and the state in which the adoptive parents reside. In many states, adoptive parents may pay pregnancy-related medical or hospital costs and necessary living expenses of the mother preceding and during her pregnancy. This arrangement usually permits them to pay medical costs; reasonable living expenses; counseling fees; legal costs; and travel expenses. At finalization, adoptive parents usually will have to file a detailed accounting of all their expenses, including all payments or promises of payments to birth parents.

Birth father's rights:

Generally, birth fathers are separated into two legal categories: "alleged" fathers and "presumed" fathers. The rights of the biological father depend upon his position according to these legal definitions.
- A man is a presumed father if he was married to the birth mother at the time of birth or within 300 days before the baby's birth. Thus, a recently-divorced or deceased husband is a presumed father.
- A man is also a presumed father if he marries the birth mother after the birth.
- He will be a presumed father if he either is named on the birth certificate with his consent or is obligated to pay support under a voluntary promise or court order.
- A man can become a presumed father without marrying the birth mother by receiving the child into his home and declaring that the child is his biological child.
- One of the unusual results of the Uniform Parentage Act is that a man who is not the biological father of the child may be legally designated the presumed father. This happens most frequently when a woman becomes pregnant while separated from her husband but whose marriage to him was not legally terminated within three hundred days before the child's birth. All other men who claim to be the child's father, or who are named by the birth mother as the father or as a possible father, are alleged fathers.
Rights of presumed fathers: The presumed father's consent is necessary for an adoption. If he is not the biological father, his consent may not be required, although he still must be notified of the court hearing that will determine that he is not the biological father. If his whereabouts are unknown, a diligent effort must be made to find him. If he is not found, his rights can be terminated for abandonment.
Rights of alleged fathers: To gain any right to custody of the child or to block the adoption, the alleged father must file a legal action establishing his paternity. His consent to the adoption is not required.