A provision in a year-old Florida adoption law needlessly humiliates women by forcing them to publish embarrassing details of their sex lives. The law's supposed purpose is to protect the rights of biological fathers, but there is no evidence it does so. One of the law's sponsors, Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, now admits the Legislature made a mistake. He's right, and the sooner this law is fixed, the better.

When a woman decides to put a child up for adoption, she should make every reasonable effort to notify the biological father of her decision. That way, the man has a chance to admit paternity and either give his permission for the adoption or seek custody of the child himself. That effort is required by law and is appropriate.

In many adoptions, however, the father still cannot be found after a diligent search. He may be avoiding contact, the mother may be unsure of his identity or his whereabouts may be unknown. That is when the new law becomes punitive. It requires the mother to run a legal notice in a newspaper published where conception occurred, listing her name and physical description and naming and describing those men she had sex with around the time she became pregnant. It is the modern equivalent of imposing a scarlet letter of shame on a woman.

Tampa lawyer Jeanne Tate handles dozens of adoptions each year and she knows of no case in which the public notification requirement found a father. Rather, "it's an effort to put moral judgment on the birth mother," she said. Tate is planning to challenge the law in Hillsborough County on constitutional grounds, and it has already suffered a setback in Palm Beach County, where a judge ruled that a minor girl who was raped did not have to abide by the public notice provision. that spared only one young woman in one courtroom.

The law sets up a conflict between a biological father's parental rights and a mother's right to privacy. "When (lawmakers) do make an intrusion into a constitutionally protected right, they should do so in the least intrusive means," Tate said. "This is the most intrusive means, short of a billboard."

The law already requires an exhaustive search for the father using employment, medical and other public records. Tate hires a private investigator for the searches in her adoption cases. So it is not clear that further steps are necessary. In fact, in the most controversial adoption cases in recent years, public notification would have made no difference.

There are other options. More than 30 states have a father's registry that let's responsible men protect their rights. It works this way: Anyone who thinks he could become a birth father can put his name on a confidential registry. While that information is kept private, it assures the man that he will be notified before any adoption takes place. That way a man can protect his rights without humiliating himself or the mother.

The harm done by the current law has finally gotten legislators' attention. Sen. Campbell, D-Tamarac, admits the law "contains some significant unintended consequences." While it is difficult to believe that Campbell and other lawmakers didn't foresee such consequences, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt as long as they remove the public notification requirement from the law as soon as possible.

A woman who makes the emotionally wrenching decision to put her child up for adoption doesn't need the Florida Legislature adding to her pain.

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