June 2001
To NCFM letter-writing committee members, non-NCFM members are encouraged
to participate as well.
This month we will write to the U.S. Justice Department to protest state
court decisions that force men to pay child support even when DNA tests prove
they are not the biological fathers.
A recent example of this type of ruling is a Texas man ordered by the
court to continue support payments and whose visitation rights were rescinded
when the judge thought that the children should not know the truth about their
lineage.
Another recent example occurred in Georgia, where an attorney sued his
former wife after DNA tests cleared him of paternity. But the man found neither
sympathy nor relief from the court, which ruled last month he continue support
payments of more than $1,000 a month.
After the trial, the man said: "Everybody talks about 'deadbeat dads,' but nothing is ever said about fraudulent moms."
Here are four points to consider in your letters:
1) No man should be forced to pay child support or to take expensive
legal action when DNA tests show the children are not his. But because very few
states have laws that protect men from child-support fraud, we need action on
the national level.
2) State governments cannot be trusted to act equitably. For example, a
bill addressing false paternity claims was approved last year by the Georgia
House, 163-0, but never made it out of a senate committee when a member claimed
the bill was "too open-ended."
3) Further, DNA tests clear nearly one out of every three men who contest
paternity when named as fathers by women applying for state assistance.
As a necessary deterrent, women must be held financially and criminally
liable for this fraud.
4) Equal protection is guaranteed under the Fifth and Fourteenth
amendments to the Constitution. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA II),
passed last year, violates these provisions. Legal costs and child-support
reimbursement for men in false paternity cases could be taken from VAWA funds.
Send your letters to:
U.S. Department of Justice;
Daniel Bryant, Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs;
950 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.;
Main Justice Building, Room 1537;
Washington D.C. 20530.
Yours in the cause,
Mike Spaniola, chairman
NCFM letter-writing committee