Plan Targets Adoptions by Unwed Couples

California is moving to prevent adoptions by unmarried couples--gay or straight--in regulations that have been proposed by the Wilson administration.

On Tuesday, the Department of Social Services began a series of public hearings to review the proposals, which if approved would take effect in October 1997.

Another hearing is scheduled Thursday in Santa Ana.

The proposal--which formalizes existing policy--has sparked a renewed debate over just who is suitable to adopt children in California, where last year about 6,000 children were adopted.

By pushing the policy, Gov. Pete Wilson is seeking to underscore what his administration sees as a need for traditional families to adopt children. Adoption officials say an unwelcome effect of the policy would be to discourage single parents and gays and lesbians from adopting children, even though there is an urgent need for children in foster homes to be adopted.

The regulations say that an adoption agency shall spell out to the courts that a proposed adoption resulting “in a child’s having parents who are not legally married to each other is not in the best interest of the child.”

“When two people want to adopt, they should have the sanctity of marriage,” said Janice Ploeger Glaab, chief of public affairs for the state Health and Welfare Agency. The policy is designed to prevent unmarried couples, heterosexual or homosexual, from adopting children, she said.

“It’s like telling your children to get married before they have kids. It’s more traditional . . . traditional American attitude,” she said.

Ploeger Glaab said the policy does not address adoptions by single people.

Administration officials also say it would be up to the courts to make the final determination over whether someone is fit to be an adoptive parent. But critics say that the courts tend to follow the recommendations of the Wilson administration in such judicial proceedings.

“To me, it’s detrimental to the children who need adoptive homes, if you limit the placement options, as long as they are safe for the child,” said Virginia Weisz, an attorney who handles children’s issues with Public Counsel, a public interest law firm.

Under the regulations, she said, if one partner in a gay or lesbian relationship has a child biologically, the other partner wouldn’t be able to adopt the child. In other words, it restricts a child of gay or lesbian parents from having two legal guardians, opponents say.

Sara Berman, who oversees adoptions in Los Angeles County, said the administration’s plan may discourage people who could provide “a wonderful home for children” from seeking an adoption.

“While it doesn’t say singles can’t adopt, it could give the message that single people are seen as less desirable,” Berman said.

Of the 6,000 annual adoptions in the state last year, about 1,380 took place in Los Angeles County, 320 in Orange County and 90 in Ventura County. The state does not keep track of the number of unmarried couples who apply to adopt. “It’s relatively uncommon,” Ploeger Glaab said.

The proposal comes at a time when Republican lawmakers are pushing to head off the recognition of same-sex marriages in California.