SALT LAKE CITY - The president of the Utah Adoption Council says a case involving a father from Colorado could change the law and help fathers all over the country.
9NEWS introduced you to Rob Manzanares on Wednesday. He says his daughter was adopted against his will when the birth mother went to Utah to have the baby. He has fought for four years to get her back
Thursday, a Utah legislative committee heard arguments about changing the law. Some adoption lawyers are now saying this case may be the very thing that shakes up a system built on the premise that women can deceive a biological father - and still be protected by law.
"I won't quit," Manzanares said.
He says he has been scared to hope. He has only met his little girl once inside a court house.
"I can't explain the joy I felt," he said.
"This case is about the mother's decision to have her child adopted without consulting the dad to raise his own child," John Hedrick, Manzanares's lawyer, said.
Manzanares filed a paternity action in Colorado while his then-girlfriend, Carie Terry, was pregnant. Court document show that without telling him, she went to Utah, had the baby early, and then gave her up for adoption to her brother and sister-in-law.
Manzanares had no idea his daughter had been born or adopted.
"The state of Utah pretty much kidnapped my daughter. That is how I feel. She has been kidnapped from me," he said.
Utah has the most restrictive laws on asserting an unmarried father's rights in the country.
"We cannot stand by and let these adoptions happen," Wes Hutchins, the president of the Utah Adoption Council, said.
He has watched the Manzanaras case unfold in court.
"While it may be difficult to disrupt an adoption, we cannot stand by and do nothing, because to do otherwise would incentivize women and those who work with women that place their children for adoption to do anything to get a child," Hutchins said.
Hutchins believes the recent Utah Supreme Court ruling that reversed the decision denying Manzanares his parental rights will change things for fathers like Manzanares all over the country.
"This is absolutely a groundbreaking decision and signals a major shift in our court's interpreting the current law and calling for a change in our statute," Hutchins said.
A committee in the Utah legislature is now considering that potential change in adoption law.
"The time is ripe now in Utah to act, to correct the course this ship is going right now," Hutchins said.
Utah law allows adoptions to continue even if the unwed mother commits fraud by lying to the father about the whereabouts of the child.
"It needs to stop. It's not fair to the other 49 states that Utah provides a place for mother's to go to have a father's rights eliminated," Hedrick said.
No matter what happens, there is a little girl who likely has no idea of fight over her and a father who after four years still has hope.
"I wholeheartedly believe that he will get his daughter back. I think there needs to be some decisions rendered by various courts, but I think it will end up back in Colorado," Hutchins said.
The committee meeting in the legislature was continued on Thursday.
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