Overview
- The bill introduces an acknowledgment block that prevents any new legal paternity recognition while a biological father’s court case to establish paternity is pending.
- Family courts are directed to weigh the child’s age and social‑familial ties; for minors an existing bond with the legal father no longer automatically bars challenges, and for adults a challenge succeeds unless the child objects.
- A presumption applies that no social‑familial relationship exists if the legal father has held that status for less than one year.
- Children aged 14 or older gain the ability to withhold consent to stop the mother from installing another legal father over the biological father.
- The draft offers a two‑year second chance to refile if relationships change subject to a child‑welfare check, curbs strategic acknowledgments that sideline biological fathers, and simplifies recognition when mother, child, and the current legal father all agree.