Ohio Supreme Court hears case on father’s right to contest adoption

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WTVG) - After the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the topic of adoption has taken the spotlight.

So at what point does a biological father lose the right to contest an adoption? That’s the question before the Ohio Supreme Court.

At the end of the day, the case before the Ohio Supreme Court is all about deadlines and the rights of a biological father.

It involves a girl who was 17-years-old at the time she got pregnant and her then 18-year-old boyfriend. She told him early on she wanted to put the child up for adoption but he disagreed. Eventually they ended their relationship. He tried to keep in touch but her family cut off communication.

The baby was born about a week early and was almost immediately placed with a couple looking to adopt that child. 17 days after the baby was born, the biological father found out. He immediately filed with Ohio’s putative father registry, which gives unmarried men the chance to get parental rights. The only problem is that the deadline to do that is 15 days after the child is born.

A juvenile court eventually declared he is the biological father but lawyers for the girl say he missed his chance.

“During the pregnancy, he controls all the cards. He can stop it,” said John C. Huffman, the lawyer for the child’s birth mother. “They can’t guarantee the adoption is going to go through. But he can guarantee that it won’t go through. If he files for that putative father registry, doesn’t abandon her, and files a parentage action, if he does that, it’s over.”

The man argues because he established he’s the legal father, he still has rights, but the adoptive family and mother’s lawyers argue this could allow adoptions already established to be upended years after the fact.