Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 30, 1993 TAG: 9311300078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The regulations will implement part of President Clinton's deficit-cutting legislation enacted earlier this year.
The administration believes a simpler process for establishing paternity, particularly at hospitals, could increase child support collections and reduce welfare payments to single parents.
Under the new law, states are required to establish a simple civil process for voluntarily acknowledging paternity. States also must set up paternity establishment programs in every public and private hospital with an obstetric ward and at birthing centers associated with hospitals.
States also must include due process safeguards and an explanation of the rights and responsibilities of acknowledging paternity. Plus, they must ensure that voluntary paternity acknowledgment is a basis for seeking child support.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, states with hospital-based programs have found that an unwed father is more likely to be present and to admit paternity during the time surrounding the birth than later on.
"The earlier paternity is established, the sooner the child will have access to the father's medical benefits, medical history information, a relationship with the father, child support and other benefits result from paternity establishment," according to the proposed rules.
More than 1 million children a year are born to unwed mothers, but paternity is not established in a sizeable number of cases. HHS said the number of paternities established by state and local child support enforcement agencies totaled 515,000 in 1992, up from about 270,000 in 1987.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the percentage of eligible children for whom paternity was established in December 1988 ranged from a high of 84 percent in Maryland to a low of 11 percent in Oklahoma. The national average was 45 percent.
While paternity establishment is the first step in obtaining child support, it also can result in other financial benefits to the child, including Social Security, pension and veterans' benefits, and other rights of inheritance.
Paternity establishment also may give children a sense of family heritage. It can be the first step in creating a psychological and social bond between father and child, and may provide the child with medical history information, the department said.
About half of the states already have or are developing hospital-based programs, although their programs are often operating less than statewide, the department said.
Some of those programs have successfully obtained voluntary acknowledgement for about 40 percent of their out-of-wedlock births.
by CNB