The House Judiciary Committee heard SB 332, sponsored by Rep. Olthoff, on adoption matters. The legislation:
- changes adoption notice language;
- provides consent to adoption is not required from a father if the child born out of wedlock was conceived because of a crime rape, child molesting, sexual misconduct with a minor, or incest in Indiana or a crime in any other jurisdiction, which is substantially similar to Indiana’s crimes;
- provides the consent to paternity is irrevocably implied whether the putative father filed a paternity action in Indiana or any other jurisdiction and failed to establish paternity;
- provides a putative father whose consent to an adoption is implied in certain cases if the paternity is not established by affidavit in Indiana or any other jurisdiction;
- provides a putative father’s motion to contest the adoption is denied in certain instances, whether it was denied in Indiana or any other jurisdiction;
- prohibits the State Department of Health from processing a birth certificate for an adoption unless the adoption history fee and putative father registry fee were paid and the report summarizing the available medical, psychological, and educational records concerning the birth parents is submitted;
- prohibits the parents whose parental rights were terminated or any other person from challenging the adoption decree;
- amends post adoption contact for a child less than two (2) years old to include photographs, written and verbal updates, provides the permission for contact does not have to be in writing and does not affect the validity of a consent to an adoption or waiver of notice of adoption; and,
- amends the crime of profiting from an adoption to provide the crime does not apply if the birth mother is not a resident of Indiana and the adoption takes place outside Indiana and increases the payments allowed to a birth mother from $3,000 to $4,000.
The bill was amended to expand limited adoption advertising to include print, digital, radio, television and outdoor media, limit advertising to attorneys licensed to practice law in Indiana or a child placing agency licensed in Indiana, and increase the penalty for adoption deception and unauthorized adoption advertising from a Class A misdemeanor to a Level 6 felony. The amended bill passed 11-0.
Read the bill at: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2017/bills/senate/332