Submitting a petition for adoption is an emotional process for prospective guardians. It’s even more difficult if you’re dealing with a birth parent who is unresponsive or has disappeared from the child’s life. Fortunately, Alabama lawmakers addressed this issue in the state’s adoption code. Implied consent allows adoptions to proceed when parents haven’t consented or objected. For example, parents who haven’t contacted their natural child for at least six months give implied consent to adoption through their inactions.
Implied Consent Adoption Law
Normally, if a parent doesn’t consent to adoption, the child could be removed from his or her new home at any time. With implied consent, this risk is eliminated, and the child’s future in a loving adoptive family is assured. Usually, when parents consent to adoption in writing, they have a brief chance to withdraw their consent. Implied consent can’t be withdrawn. Alabama’s adoption code provides several scenarios when parents give implied consent:
- A parent who has abandoned the child by failing to offer financial and/or emotional support during the six months before birth consents to adoption.
- Putative fathers give implied consent to adoptions if they don’t file a notice of intent to claim paternity within 30 days of the child’s birth.
- Biological parents give implied consent to adoptions if they fail to provide identification for at least 30 days.
- If the parent leaves the child with others and does not provide support or maintain a significant parental relationship with the child for six months, he or she provides implied consent to adoption.
- Implied consent is given if a parent does not respond within 30 days after an adoption notice was served personally or by publication.
If you’re preparing to adopt a child, but the birth parent hasn’t consented, contact the adoption attorneys at Allums Welsch, PC. We offer free initial consultations at our office in downtown Bessemer. Our friendly staff and compassionate adoption attorneys will help you establish implied consent.
