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The Indiana Senate is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a bill that would create a guardian ad litem pilot program for parents in adoption cases who have intellectual disabilities.
Senate Bill 16 would establish the two-year pilot program in LaPorte, Marshall and Starke counties.
The bill advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week and was heard on second reading in the full Senate on Tuesday. It is now scheduled for a final vote in the Senate on Thursday.
Bill author Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that women who have low IQs are at a greater risk of being sexually assaulted, which can result in pregnancy.
“What happens with these moms is at time of delivery, there’s the guardian who determines what happens to the child,” Bohacek said. “The guardian may not be a family member, may not be known to them, and I witnessed first-hand the guardian was not somebody known to them, and the baby was taken right away. The mom never had a chance to have any bonding experience, nothing.”
But under SB 16, courts in the pilot counties would be required to appoint a GAL for a parent who has an intellectual disability and has a court-appointed guardian.
With the pilot program, Bohacek said the hope is that mothers in those situations will be given representation and will be able to transition with the child into the adoption setting.
Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, questioned how it would be known whether the mother has an intellectual disability.
Bohacek said that is something that is typically established early in life, unless the disability was the result of an accident. Also, the mother herself would have a guardian or caretaker.
The Judiciary Committee passed SB 16 unanimously, and no amendments were made on second reading.
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