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The Senate passed Monday a bill that will allow the state to enforce child support obligations against all parents — including same-sex parents.
It voted 17-9 to pass SB179, and sent it to the House.
Its sponsor, Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said the change is needed because of court rulings allowing same-sex parents to be listed on birth certificates, and laws allowing adoptions by them.
He said the attorney general's office wrote him that further lawsuits against the state may come if the change were not made.
The bill says the state's "Office of Recovery Services shall have full standing and authority to enforce child support obligations against an alleged parent currently or formerly in a same-sex marriage on the same terms as its authority against other mothers and fathers."
The bill originally would have amended many sections of the Utah Code regarding same-sex parents, but Hillyard amended the bill Monday to narrow its focus solely on child support enforcement.
— Lee Davidson