An article in the Daily Press in Virginia announces that Virginia has just joined the ranks of about three dozen other states that have developed Putative Father Registries. The Virginia Putative Father Registry is a confidential database that is designed to protect the rights of a father by establishing paternity and notifying a father of the termination of parental rights or adoption proceedings for a child he may have fathered.

Putative Father Registries are designed to identify potential fathers and make it their option to take part in parental decision making. Men who have been sexually active with someone who they are not married to are required to register with the state registry if they want to know if a child that could have resulted from a sexual encounter is being put up for adoption or if the mother is looking to terminate the father’s parental rights.

In Virginia, fathers have ten days from the child’s birth to register. To register potential fathers are asked to fill out a one page form or register online with social services. The Virginia registry went into effect on July 1st.Registering does not establish paternity, which is a separate legal process, but failure to register means that the potential father waives his parental rights.

Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute in Massachusetts was consulted for the article and said that however well intentioned the registries are, the problem lies in that most people do not even know that they exist.

"It is not a natural course of people's human instincts to go sign up every time they have sex," said Pertman. "If the intent is to engage and empower fathers, so far I don't see the evidence that that's happening."

He also suggested that there could be more benefit with a well-advertised national registry.

For more information, visit the Virginia Putative Father’s Registry page on the Virginia Department of Social Services website.