Kelly McGuire Burke
SPRINGFIELD — Three decades after it was enacted, the state’s parentage law is on track for an overhaul by Illinois lawmakers.
A new version of the Parentage Act that would incorporate provisions to account for same-sex marriage and unmarried parents is poised for a Senate vote after passing the House last week.
The rewrite is authored by the Illinois State Bar Association Family Law Study Committee.
Generally, it would modernize the law, remove gender-specific language and make room for “non-traditional relationships” in the context of who is presumed to be a legal parent — and thus given the right to live with a child and make decisions about his or her life.
For instance, the bill states that “a person” is presumed to be the parent when entering “into a marriage, civil union, or substantially similar legal relationship, and the child is born to the mother” during such a relationship — unless there’s a valid surrogacy contract already in place.
The law also says that if a child is born to a couple right before their relationship begins or soon after it is legally terminated, they’re still presumed to be the legal parents.
And if confusion arises under the proposed law, courts are instructed to make decisions that fall in line with the “child’s best interests.”
The new legislation would replace the current Parentage Act that was enacted in 1984. The proposal is written in to House Bill 1531 and is more than 200 pages long.
“When you start dealing with things like surrogacy and same-sex relationships, which were never really contemplated in 1984, it gives us a clear place to start,” said Morris Lane Harvey, owner of the Law Office of Morris Lane Harvey in Mount Vernon and a member of the ISBA’s Family Law Section Council who supports the bill.
“And that, in my view — that had not been as clearly done. It has the potential to provide a clear framework from which to begin and where these issues will be discussed.”
While it goes into significant detail about parents’ rights, the bill’s stated policy goal is to recognize the rights of children.
Article I of the proposed Parentage Act states that every child has the right to the “physical, mental, emotional and financial support of his or her parents” regardless of the legal relationship of the parents or whether a parent is a minor.
That language is aimed at broadening the base of individuals who are eligible — or even expected — to play a guiding role in a child’s life.
“Every child has a right to two parents, and they have the opportunity to support the child; to have parenting time with the child; to make decisions that affect the child’s life,” said Margaret A. Bennett, a senior partner at Bennett Law Firm LLC in Oak Brook who co-chairs the ISBA’s Parentage Subcommittee and helped write the bill.
The legislation has its detractors. It passed by a 65-50 margin in the House with opposition from conservative groups such as the Illinois Family Institute, which advocates for marriage to be limited to a man and woman, among other things.
“I don’t like the idea that we continually move away from the idea of acknowledging a biological father and a biological mother. I don’t think that’s insignificant,” said Laurie Higgins, an analyst for the group.
Higgins disagrees with several other items in the proposal, including the “full faith and credit” clause. That section would force Illinois to recognize parentage setups that have been deemed legal in other states even if they conflict with the law here.
For instance, California law allows for more than two individuals to be legally deemed as parents of a child. That would conflict with the new Parentage Act proposal, which, while attempting to account for new kinds of relationships, would still limit the number of people who can be legally recognized as parents to two.
But Rep. Kelly McGuire Burke, a Democrat from Evergreen Park who sponsored the bill in the House, said the state’s Healthcare and Family Services Department told her that without the “full faith” clause, the state would miss out on around $750 million in federal funding for child care and temporary assistance for needy families.
That’s because as a condition for the funding, the federal Social Security Act requires states “give full faith and credit” to acknowledgments of paternity in other states.
“We thought this was the best route,” Burke said regarding whether to keep the clause or potentially forfeit the federal dollars.
The legislation is currently assigned to the Senate’s Judiciary Committee. It’s sponsored by Sen. John G. Mulroe, a Democrat from Chicago.