HB1174Enacted
Revise certain provisions related to the rights and obligations of a father of a child born to an unmarried mother.
This bill changes how unmarried fathers establish legal rights to their children born outside of marriage. Instead of requiring a father to publicly acknowledge the child and formally adopt it, the new law automatically recognizes a father's parental status if he does any one of three things: takes the child into his household, contributes financially to the child's support, or helps supervise and care for the child. Once established, the father's relationship to the child is treated the same as if the child were born to a married couple, without needing to follow additional adoption procedures.