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Legislation to prevent more heartbreaking stories like Baby Vanessa (Sen. Mary Landrieu)
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07/19/10 05:07 PM ET
Robin Sax's troubling story on HuffPost, "The Battle for Baby Vanessa" (July 7) highlights one of the many challenges facing our Congress and this nation. Together, we must find new ways to strengthen families by ensuring that children have permanent and loving families by promoting responsible adoption policies.
As an adoptive mother of two and Co-Chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, I am disturbed by the story of baby Vanessa and the battle that has ensued between her adoptive mother, Stacey Doss, and biological father, Benjamin Mills.
This story illustrates the importance of and need for a national putative father registry to support the American value of family and responsible parenthood. In instances where unwed mothers are unable or unwilling to provide the identification of a child's father, children need protections to prevent the disruption of adoptions and provide them with a safe and permanent home, while ensuring the rights of unmarried and unknowing fathers,
The Promoting Adoption and Protecting Responsible Fatherhood Act (S.939), which I introduced in the 111th Congress, does just that. Currently, more than half of U.S. states have putative father registries. By establishing a national paternity database, this bill increases a state's capacity to prevent a father's efforts to take responsibility for his child from being undermined.
The heartbreaking story of the battle over Baby Vanessa drives home the need for our adoption system to balance the rights of fathers and the privacy of mothers, while ultimately working in the best interests of children. Congress passing the Promoting Adoption and Protecting Responsible Fatherhood Act would be a big step in the right direction and the most immediate way that we can help prevent future tragedies like that surrounding Baby Vanessa.
As an adoptive mother of two and Co-Chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, I am disturbed by the story of baby Vanessa and the battle that has ensued between her adoptive mother, Stacey Doss, and biological father, Benjamin Mills.
This story illustrates the importance of and need for a national putative father registry to support the American value of family and responsible parenthood. In instances where unwed mothers are unable or unwilling to provide the identification of a child's father, children need protections to prevent the disruption of adoptions and provide them with a safe and permanent home, while ensuring the rights of unmarried and unknowing fathers,
The Promoting Adoption and Protecting Responsible Fatherhood Act (S.939), which I introduced in the 111th Congress, does just that. Currently, more than half of U.S. states have putative father registries. By establishing a national paternity database, this bill increases a state's capacity to prevent a father's efforts to take responsibility for his child from being undermined.
The heartbreaking story of the battle over Baby Vanessa drives home the need for our adoption system to balance the rights of fathers and the privacy of mothers, while ultimately working in the best interests of children. Congress passing the Promoting Adoption and Protecting Responsible Fatherhood Act would be a big step in the right direction and the most immediate way that we can help prevent future tragedies like that surrounding Baby Vanessa.
Cross-posted from The Huffington Post.
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