By: Harris S.B. No. 121
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to voluntary establishment of paternity.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Section 192.003, Health and Safety Code, is
1-4 amended by amending Subsection (d), as added by Section 1, Chapter
1-5 519, Acts of the 73rd Legislature, 1993, and Subsections (e) and
1-6 (f) to read as follows:
1-7 (e) If the mother of the child is not married to the father
1-8 of the child, a person listed by Subsection (a) or (b) who is
1-9 responsible for filing the birth certificate shall <(d) On the
1-10 birth of a child, the hospital, physician, midwife, or person
1-11 acting as a midwife in attendance or their designee at a birth
1-12 may>:
1-13 (1) provide an opportunity for the child's mother and
1-14 biological father to sign the birth certificate or a form
1-15 prescribed by the department in which the biological father
1-16 consents to be named as the child's father on the child's birth
1-17 certificate; and
1-18 (2) provide written information about establishing
1-19 paternity, including an explanation of the rights and
1-20 responsibilities of acknowledging paternity and information about
1-21 the availability of<, including an application for> child support
1-22 services, <furnished by the attorney general,> to the child's
1-23 mother and the father, if present <regarding the benefits of having
1-24 her child's paternity established and of the availability of
2-1 paternity establishment services>.
2-2 (f) <(e)> The local registrar shall transmit signed consent
2-3 forms to the state registrar.
2-4 (g) <(f)> The state registrar shall transmit signed consent
2-5 forms to the attorney general who may use such forms for any
2-6 purpose directly connected with the provision of child support
2-7 services pursuant to Chapter 76, Human Resources Code.
2-8 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
2-9 applies only to a birth certificate filed on or after that date.
2-10 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-11 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-12 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-13 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-14 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.