SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Adoption 
and Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Act of 2012’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings: 
(1) Responsible father registries, also known as 
possible father registries or putative father reg-
istries, exist in as many as 34 States. 
(2) The Supreme Court of the United States in 
Lehr v. Robertson (463 U.S. 248) (1983), found re-
sponsible father registries to be constitutional. 
(3) Responsible father registries help to speed 
up the stable placement of children by providing a 
mechanism to determine whether there are any pos-
sible fathers who may have an interest in partici-
pating in the placement decisions of the child so that 
the possible father can timely assert his rights or so 
that the father’s rights can be waived, surrendered, 
or terminated and the child made available for adop-
tion or placement. 
(4) Responsible father registries protect the pri-
vacy and safety of unwed mothers by removing the 
burden from the mother to provide information 
about any possible fathers, disclosure of which would 
be an invasion of her privacy and may cause harm 
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to the mother, particularly in the case of rape or do-
mestic violence. 
(5) Responsible father registries serve to pro-
tect the rights of men who wish to be involved in the 
placement decisions of a child they believe they may 
have fathered by creating a mechanism for such men 
to undertake responsibility and to protect their 
rights without having to rely upon others to protect 
their rights, and to indicate their desire to be noti-
fied in a timely manner of certain legal proceedings 
related to the child, including proceedings related to 
termination of rights, adoption, and the placement 
of the child into State custody. 
(6) Responsible father registries protect the pri-
vacy of possible fathers by providing a mechanism 
for men to submit identifying information to a data-
base with restricted access. 
(7) Responsible father registries protect the in-
terests of adoptive parents and increase the security 
of adoptions by reducing the risk that possible fa-
thers cannot be located in a timely manner. One of 
the biggest risks to the finalization of an adoption 
is the inability of the parties to an adoption pro-
ceeding to timely locate the possible fathers. When 
possible fathers are not provided with timely notice 
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of an adoption proceeding related to a child they 
may have fathered and discover such proceeding 
later, the adoption proceeding often is delayed or 
disrupted. In addition to causing emotional stress 
and significant costs associated with this problem, 
such cases, particularly when they attract media at-
tention, create a chilling effect on adoption in that 
prospective adoptive parents may decide not to pur-
sue the option of adoption for fear that they will be 
involved in a such a case. 
(8) Interstate travel of mothers and the filing 
of legal actions relating to a child in a State other 
than the State in which a possible father may have 
registered may circumvent and eliminate the protec-
tions such unwed mothers and possible fathers are 
provided by the individual State Responsible Father 
Registries, because there are no agreements or 
mechanisms between the States to identify or to pro-
vide notice to possible fathers who have registered in 
another State. 
(9) The inability of States to coordinate and 
cross-check their responsible father registries may 
jeopardize or delay the placement of the child in a 
permanent home and undermines the benefits to 
unwed mothers, protections intended for registered 
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possible fathers, and security for adoptive parents 
that State registries are intended to afford. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to provide for a national database that 
would accept possible father registrations from par-
ticipating State Responsible Father Registries and 
directly from possible fathers, and would transmit 
the results of specific searches of such registrations 
to authorized parties involved in any State’s pro-
ceedings, whether the State participates in the na-
tional registry or not, for adoption, the placement of 
a child in State custody, or the termination of a fa-
ther’s rights; 
(2) to enable children to find a permanent home 
more quickly by providing identifying information on 
possible fathers thereby enabling the fathers’ rights 
to be addressed in a more timely manner; 
(3) to remove the burden from the mother of 
having to identify potential fathers, to protect her 
privacy and safety, especially in cases of rape or do-
mestic violence; 
(4) to empower men to take responsibility for 
the protection of their rights by enabling them to 
register in a participating State or directly with the 
national registry, increasing the likelihood of men re-
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ceiving notice of a proceeding in another State and 
reducing the opportunity for the mother to deprive 
a possible father of the ability to assert his rights 
by withholding accurate information concerning the 
possible father, by moving, or by traveling to an-
other State; and 
(5) to reduce the risk to prospective adoptive 
parents of delayed or disrupted placements resulting 
from challenges to adoptions due to a possible fa-
ther’s untimely receipt of notice of such proceedings. 
SEC. 3. REGISTRIES TO FACILITATE ADOPTIONS. 
Part B of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 620 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
‘‘Subpart 3—National and State Responsible Father 
Registries to Facilitate Adoptions 
‘‘SEC. 440. DEFINITIONS. 
‘‘In this subpart: 
‘‘(1) BUSINESS DAY.—The term ‘business day’ 
means a day on which Federal or State offices, as 
applicable, are open for regular business. 
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE
PARTY.—The term ‘eligible 
party’ means— 
‘‘(A) public and licensed private adoption 
or child placement agencies gathering informa-
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