By Jedidiah McKeehan
According to a 2018 study, it is estimated that forty percent of births in the United States occur outside of marriage. That is an increase from twenty-eight percent in 1990.
It seems that there is much less of a stigma surrounding having children while not being married. To the extent that there exists any discrimination to those children who are born to an unmarried couple, the Tennessee legislators have passed a law in an attempt to prevent such and made it a criminal act to discriminate against individuals based upon them being born to unmarried individuals.
Tennessee Code Annotated section 36-2-316 states,
(a) No child born out of a wedlock shall be deprived of any civil benefit afforded to other citizens by law.
(b) Any person, including any employee or official of any governmental agency, who deprives any person of any civil benefit afforded to other citizens by law, by reason of the child being born out of wedlock, commits a Class C misdemeanor.
This law was passed in 1997. I am not sure how much discrimination is occurring on this basis, but if it is occurring, it carries with it a criminal penalty.
Jedidiah McKeehan is an attorney practicing in Knox County and surrounding counties. He works in many areas, including family law, criminal, and personal injury. Visit attorney-knoxville.com for more information about this legal issue and other legal issues.
