- Committee -

SCS/SB 597 - This act creates the "Adoption Awareness Law" to promote adoption as an alternative parenting option.

Section 191.975 outlines the adoption education and promotion duties of the Division of Maternal, Child, and Family Health within the Department of Health, in conjunction with the Office of Women's Health. A variety of materials may be made available on the internet and by all Department family planning and education programs, privately funded adoption agencies, abortion facilities, and private physicians upon their patients' request.

Section 453.030 currently outlines the procedure that birth parents must follow when consenting to an adoption. New language allows consent at any time before the child's birth, when the appropriate forms are completed in the presence of a judge or a licensed child-placing agency and with the acknowledgment of a notary public. Consent may be revoked at any time within 48 hours of the birth. After consent is executed and after the 48 hour revocation period, the child may be placed in the adoptive home and the court may proceed with its approval process, which currently must be completed within three days.

In addition, Section 453.030.7 currently states that consent may be withdrawn anytime before it is reviewed by a Judge. New language states that in cases where the birth parents consent to the adoption in the presence of a licensed child-placing agency after the child is 48 hours old, then consent may not be withdrawn except by judicial order. New language in Section 453.030.9(3) and (4) states that if a father consents before the child's birth, the consent form shall state that he has 48 hours to revoke consent. In cases where birth parents consent in the presence of an agency representative after the child is 48 hours old, then the consent form shall state that consent is irrevocable.

ERIN MOTLEY