A Labour MP has proposed a new law, so unmarried mothers whose partners die during their pregnancy can name both parents on a child’s birth certificate.
Jen Craft said her Registration of Births (Inclusion of Deceased Parents) Bill would end the “protracted and traumatic legal battle” grieving families currently face.
Unmarried mothers whose partners die during their pregnancy must apply for a declaration of parentage through the courts, before their child’s father can appear on the birth certificate.
“The law in this area has not kept pace with societal change,” Ms Craft told the Commons.
The Thurrock MP said a birth certificate was “a simple piece of paperwork which marks a special moment, and one that brings important recognition of their new family along with notable legal rights”.
She added: “Yet for a number of women every year, what should be an uncontroversial step in their journey as a parent becomes a protracted and traumatic legal battle.”
Ms Craft later said: “The fact the mother does not have a ring on her finger means there is no automatic recognition of paternity. If an unmarried woman experiences the unimaginable tragedy of losing her partner during pregnancy, there is no provision for her to register them on the child’s birth certificate.
“Unless both parents can be present, the registrar is deemed unable to verify the paternity of the father.
“While suffering the grief of losing a loved one and facing the new reality of parenthood alone, bereaved mothers leave the register office with a blank space on their child’s birth certificate instead of their partner’s name.”
To have their child’s father listed, parents face a “lengthy, costly and traumatising legal process in the family courts”, Ms Craft told MPs.
She warned the existing framework marked a “deeper inequality within the legal system – that unmarried couples are held in lower regard”.
Registrars can already amend birth certificates, if they have evidence to back up the changes.
“We can similarly empower them to correct an absence of a deceased parent, provided they receive sufficient evidence of intended parenthood,” Ms Craft said, as she also suggested couples could make a declaration of intended parentage during their pregnancy.
The Bill will be listed for its second reading debate in the Commons on July 11.
