Assemblyman Rod Wright’s AB 2240, the bill that allows men falsely named as fathers of out-of-wedlock children to escape from child support obligations imposed on them instead of on the real father, was watered down to almost nothing and passed out of Martha Escutia’s Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday (Measure allows men to contest child support)
Under the existing law, default judgments stand — even when DNA tests prove someone else is the father. Under the compromise, AB 2240 would allow a man to challenge default orders if DNA evidence proves he is not the father. But a man would have to pay support if the child had lived in the same home with him or they established a familial bond.
The bill would not provide all men with another day in court. For example, in divorce cases, husbands would be responsible for child support even if it’s later proved that the child was conceived in an extramarital affair. But the bill stops short of directing judges to automatically overturn child support orders in all cases — even when the biological father is identified. “Biology does not make a father. … In the child’s eyes, you are the father,” Alonzo said.
Wright was unhappy with being forced to cut a deal, particularly after the broader version cleared the Assembly on a 57-3 vote. But, he said, it was either accept the offer or lose the bill.
The only role that most of these non-fathers play in the lives of the children they’re forced to support is financial, and the radical feminist/Christian right coalition that opposed Wright’s bill doesn’t want that interrupted by a search for the real dad.
California law pays mothers for lying about who fathered their children still, and this is a disgrace.
Please inform me if there is anything that I can do to help champion this cause. My Husband and I are paying for a child that is not his, but unfortunately was determined after the statute of limitations. He has been paying for 10 years now, and hasn’t had contact with the child for the last 5 years. We don’t even know where she is. It sickens us to know that the mother has known all along, but won’t seek financial support from the real father. Too many men are attempting to do the right thing, and are getting trapped into a life-time of financial woes because they believed they were biological fathers. Because of this obligation, we are not able to purchase a home for our two children. Why should we have to suffer just because she picked the best man for the paycheck?