Still, some fathers' groups shrug at the Florida law, saying that if a birth mother has to suffer public humiliation in order to find a biological father, well, that's just too bad. "Why not? Are we saying we're not responsible for our actions and our shame should cover up anything we did wrong, to the detriment of the child and father? Are we saying she has no responsibility for her own actions?" asks Lawrence Hellmann, president of the National Congress for Fathers and Children.

Biological fathers do, of course, have the right to be notified; everyone seems to agree that efforts should be made to find them. But, as Jeanne Tate puts it, "There are many, many ways to give notice to the birth father which don't include such an invasion of the mother's privacy rights."

An alternative way to locate a birth father is the paternity registry. Now that so many states have them, even President Bush has advocated them; and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is currently drafting a bill that would, if passed by Congress this September, create a national paternity registry.

"We've been working on this for quite a few months," says Lindsay Ellenbogen, a spokesperson for Sen. Landrieu. "It's not in response to what's going on in Florida, but it's a good example of why this is needed ... It's all confidential, whereas in Florida that's hardly the case."

But the paternity registry is flawed, too: Is it realistic to expect that a man who wants a child will go sign a registry every time he has sex? Not surprisingly, some men's rights groups don't support this system either. "Paternity registries are kind of 'Brave New World, 1984': They are inhumane," says Fred Hayward, executive director of Men's Rights Inc. "So, it's his obligation to go down and register himself as a potential father and if he fails to do that he only has responsibilities, no rights? That's ridiculous. It's demanding a standard of behavior of potential male parents just a hundred times higher than what we demand of female parents."

So what is the best way to locate unaware or elusive biological fathers? Hellmann proposes an extreme option: Punish the mother if she doesn't seem forthcoming. "It is a woman's obligation when she gets pregnant to do everything she can to identify the father. If a mother shows she's not interested in doing that, take the child away from her until she is." Clearly, this is not an alternative likely to receive support from women, their advocates or constitutional lawyers.

Meanwhile, Florida legislators, chastened by negative publicity from the lawsuit, are already talking about revising the notice requirement -- perhaps eliminating some of the personal details that women are asked to disclose, or striking the law altogether. Even Sen. Campbell is now agreeing that the legislation is flawed. "We gotta fix it," he agrees.

"I imagine that now that this has hit the light of day there will be some changes made by the Legislature; it should be the case. Otherwise we might as well just bring back the stocks and public flogging," says Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. "It seems almost pointless to say what an outrage it is."

But even if the Florida furor results in the elimination of the law, it does not solve the conflict inherent in the search for biological fathers and the preservation of the right to privacy -- for both parents and the child. As Fred Hawyard puts it, "The ads are a terrible solution. But not doing anything is an even worse solution."

Charlotte Danciu, for one, hopes that the debacle in Florida will raise an issue that appears to have been forgotten in the heat of battle -- the well-being of unwanted children. "It's time that we stopped being so concerned about the biological parents' rights, and instead thought about the rights of the kids they bring into the world."

Recent Stories