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I think there's a bit of confusion here.
What I was told (by our lawyers) is when a father
puts himself on the putative father registry, he is
"admitting" his potential paternity of a child.
The idea is that a bfather may not be notified
by the bmom that she is expecting, and he has
a right to father that child if the bmom puts the
baby up for adoption (of course, there may be
some extenuating circumstances where he may
not be allowed to father.) Each state has their
own laws regarding how long the father has to
get on the registry - usually some amount of time
after the baby is born like 1 month - 3 months.
If the bmom doesn't name him and puts the
baby up for adoption, the registry is supposed
to be checked to see if there is a bfather and he,
ideally, will be notified by either the adoption agency
or the lawyer letting him know what's going on
and asking if he will terminate his rights, just as if
the mother had named him. If he refuses
to terminate, that's when the legal issues begin...
Others may have more info or be able to explain
this more clearly. We never personally had to
deal with the registry.
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