Bergeson Adoption Measure Clears Senate Judiciary Committee

The Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday night approved by a 6-4 vote a bill by Sen. Marian Bergeson that would give birth mothers less time to change their minds about giving their children up for independent adoption.

Several Orange County couples who had attempted to adopt children only to have them taken away rallied behind the bill at the committee hearing.

Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) said the shorter time frame for reconsideration, along with requirements that birth mothers be officially notified of their rights during the privately arranged adoptions, is aimed at fixing ambiguities in the existing law that have spawned several highly publicized and gut-wrenching custody fights over adopted children.

“We’re trying to set up a process where there is a closure, a finality,” Bergeson said.

Bergeson’s measure effectively cuts in half the time that birth mothers are afforded to change their minds about an independent adoption, which is a private informal arrangement and does not go through a public agency.

Existing law gives birth mothers six months to reconsider after the birth of the child, but Bergeson’s bill would shorten that deadline to 90 days.

If the birth mother filed an objection during the alloted time, the bill would require her to make a court appearance within 10 days to sustain her claim to custody. Failure to make the court date would nullify any objection. In addition, a birth mother’s silence during the 90-day period would be considered implied consent during the adoption process.

Bergeson’s bill also requires each birth mother to be notified in writing of her rights, including the right to three counseling sessions to help her make a final decision.

The Newport Beach Republican said she decided to introduce the bill because of “gross inadequacies” in laws recently interpreted by the courts to make three Orange County couples return adopted baby boys to their birth mothers--including one who has since been declared unfit and forced to surrender her child to foster care.

Before Tuesday’s legislative hearing, one of the adoptive mothers--Bridget Wikidal of San Juan Capistrano--told reporters that the Bergeson bill goes deeper than legal wrangling over custody battles.

“This is a family issue,” said Wikidal, who was forced by the 4th District Court of Appeal last summer to return her 18-month-old son, Erik, to his teen-age mother in San Diego. “These children are the issue.