Bergeron v. Saunders:
A Landmark Texas Family Law Case

In 2019, the landmark case of Bergeron v. Saunders (Cause No: D-1-FM-13-005391) exposed critical flaws in Texas family law regarding assisted reproduction and parental rights. The case challenged fundamental assumptions about parentage rights in modern reproductive scenarios.

While it is commonly accepted that a man's parentage is determined by biological connection, Texas law contains provisions stating that a marriage license can override biology.

Bergeron was forced to mount a legal defense and seek judicial intervention just to obtain a DNA test that would prove non-parentage. While doing so, Bergeron was compelled to provide Saunders with visitation rights to her son for 4 months—even though Saunders had never been alone with her son before.

Under statute 160.608 of the Texas Family Code, a court can deny a paternity test and declare a man the legal parent if he was in a fatherly role and it serves the child's best interests. This meant that despite seven years of legal separation, Saunders could claim paternity rights over a child Bergeron conceived independently through anonymous sperm donation—simply because they were still technically married.

This legislation dates back to the 1980s, predates modern fertility treatments, and had only been litigated a handful of times over forty years.

Bergeron v. Saunders marked the first time Texas courts had to examine how these older laws apply to children conceived through assisted reproduction during long-term legal separation.