Law Requires Women to Reveal Sexual Past Before Adoption - Publish Your Sex Life - It's the Law
Publish Your Sex Life - It's the Law | |
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This study offers a biting look at unwed pregnancy in the 50s and 60s and the pressure on white women to surrender their children for adoption. A backdrop to modern adoption practices.
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Adoption controversy hits Florida again.
A Florida law requires women of all ages (including minors) who do not know the identity of their child's father to publish details about themselves and possible sexual partners before placing the child for adoption.
Background searches are the first step, but when those fail, the law states that the woman/girl must
- place legal notices in newspapers where the baby may have been conceived;
- include her name and description;
- include the name and/or description of the possible father(s);
- list dates and places where conception may have occurred.
The notifications must be published
wherever conception may have occurred, even if outside the State of Florida.
Lawmakers say the intent of the new (2001) law is to minimize the possibility of a biological father's not being notified and given an opportunity to contest or agree to an adoption.
In July, 2002, one Palm Beach County Circuit judge ruled that the law is a constitutional violation in instances where women/girls were forcibly raped, but that it stands for all other cases - including minors. Six Florida women are preparing to challenge the law in court.
Questions raised in the press include public humiliation of women, publishing details about a minor in the media, situations where details of the pregnancy are not common knowledge (a young woman traveling to Florida from another state to conceal the pregnancy and/or birth, an interracial relationship in a family/community with strong feelings against this, etc.), and of course the question of the effect it will have on adoptions.
Surely there are other questions that should be asked, including who the law actually benefits and/or protects.
UPDATE: On April 23, 2003, a Florida Appeals Court struck down the law, stating that it violated privacy rights and substantially interfered with a woman's right to choose adoption, and on May 31, 2003, Florida Governor Jeb Bush made it official by signing a repeal of the law.
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