Push to Get Paternity Declarations Is Succeeding

A push to encourage unwed fathers to sign paternity declarations has tripled the percentage of those who do, authorities said Tuesday.

In the first two months of 1997, nearly 800 fathers signed paternity declarations in Orange County, accounting for 70% of all births to unmarried parents in Orange County, according to the family support division of the district attorney’s office. The 789 signed declarations reflects a 217% increase from the first two months of 1996.

According to Sue Delarue, the family support division chief, the increase is due largely to the division’s Paternity Opportunity Program and to a law that went into effect in January to encourage those declarations. The declarations establish legal paternity and have the same force as a paternity judgment issued by court.

The primary benefactors are children of unmarried parents, according to Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi. Such a child will receive the same benefits as a child who is born within a marriage, including parental medical coverage, Social Security survivors’ benefits and access to family medical records.

“Children also benefit emotionally by knowing who both of their parents are and by having a connection to both sides of their family,” Capizzi said.

The Paternity Opportunity Program, which started in 1995, provides paternity-related services to hospitals.

“We give expectant, unmarried mothers and the fathers the declaration and an information packet,” said Barbra Suppa, an operations manager at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton. “We help them fill out the form, and then we witness the form.”

Assembly Bill 1832 also expanded the number of places where a parent could execute a voluntary paternity declaration: at the county’s vital records office, welfare offices and courthouses.

Delarue said new federal welfare rules will require states to have paternity declarations for 90% of all births to unwed mothers to meet funding requirements.