Politics & Government
Judiciary Committee Passes Paternity Timeline Bill
Bill extending timelines for removing child support obligation advances to full Senate.
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Senate Judiciary Committee this week advanced a bill extending the paternity verification timeline.
The primary design of the bill is to allow men to remove the legal obligation of child support payments for children who prior to their 18th birthday are found not to be their biological heirs.
Although current statute limits questions of paternity to two years after a child’s birth, House Bill 2270, by Rep. Josh West, (R-5, Grove), and Sen. Chris Kidd, (R-31, Addington), would extend that window until a child’s 18th birthday.
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“There are cases that have come before the courts in which a man is proven not to be the father of a child… and yet he was forced to continue to support the child,” West, the House Majority Leader. “If a man has raised a child and wants to continue paying support for that child, that is fine. But if fraud occurs and a man is told he is a father when he is not, he should be freed from that obligation.”
West added, “This bill also allows men who may not know they are a father to choose be more actively involved in their child’s life if paternity is proven after the two-year limit.”
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West said he ran a similar bill in 2017 that passed the House but was not heard in the Senate. This time though West said he had worked with judges and Department of Human Services staff to craft wording upon which all could agree.
Although the bill is aimed at providing added protections for adult males, HB2270 makes no mention of the rights or needs of the child or children in the relationship.
Writing in the New York Times, Kelly Behre, the Director of the UC Davis Family Protection Clinic notes that such legislation, “(Harkens) back to a time when men had near absolute control over children as property,” and that such ‘male property rights’, “trump… the best interests of children.”
Despite those concerns the bill advanced to the Senate with the unanimous support of the lower chamber, passing the House Judiciary Committee 16-0 and the full House 95-0.
The Senate Judiciary Committee vote however split 9-3 along party lines, with Sens. Boren (D-16, Norman), Brooks (D-44, SW Oklahoma City) and Floyd (D-46, Oklahoma City Central) voting against.
HB 2270 is now eligible to be heard by the full Senate. If heard and passed, the bill would advance to the governor's desk to be signed into law.