Jim Bundy’s daughter turned 7 in November 2015. He wasn’t there.

He didn’t see her for Christmas of that year either, though she sneaked a phone call to tell him she loved and missed him. Awaiting a custody ruling, Bundy said his ex kept the child away from him for five months. When the pair was finally reunited, he was allowed just a two-hour visit in a church parking lot.

“She was daddy’s little girl,” the Beaver County resident said. “And all of a sudden, there was nothing.”

Though Bundy later got full custody of his daughter, parents like him across Pennsylvania are advocating for a state bill that would set equal custody as the default in cases of parental separation.

House Bill 1397 would require any judge issuing a ruling other than a 50-50 custody arrangement to have a compelling reason for doing so — including evidence of abuse or neglect against one party.

Many have dubbed this fight the “fathers’ rights movement.” Historically, the “tender years doctrine,” widely accepted in family law, was used to argue that only mothers should get custody of young children.

But Lee Schwartz, a family lawyer based in Philadelphia, said that practice is “long gone.” And after 38 years in the field, he said he doesn’t see the system as being stacked against fathers.

“I don’t think there’s any gender bias at all,” he said. “I don’t see it one little bit.”

There’s no law requiring separated Pennsylvania parents to go to court and hash out custody after a separation, Schwartz said. If they can work it out on their own, they’re free to do so. But couples who do enter into custody battles usually have to wait months before they can get in front of a judge.

Nationwide, fathers are awarded about 35 percent of custody time, with mothers receiving the other 65 percent, according to a study by Custody X Change, a company that helps separated parents create shared schedules. In Pennsylvania, that ratio is skewed slightly more toward mothers, the study showed, with fathers receiving about 28 percent of custody time.

It’s common for dads to get one or two evenings per week and every other weekend with their kids. Jason Epperson has become an expert squeezing quick outings into those visitation windows, like taking his three children to Starbucks to drink hot chocolate and play cards.

But he’s rarely satisfied.

“Every time that I have to bring them back,” he said, “they feel like they have not gotten enough time with me.”

Epperson sees his situation as evidence that courts don’t value fathers as much as they do mothers.

State Rep. Susan Helm, the bill’s primary sponsor, said she hoped the legislation — which would also encourage judges to ask parents to sit down together and work toward a shared custody schedule — would push parents to prioritize their child’s interests over their own. She rejects the use of the term “fathers’ rights.”

“That’s not what I started this bill as,” she said. “It’s equal rights.”

And Laurie Nicholson, who lives in Erie County and said her ex-husband has alienated their three children — whom she hasn’t seen in years — said the label excluded mothers who struggle with the same issue.

Still, nearly 9,000 people follow the Pennsylvania Fathers’ Rights Movement Facebook page. It sees dozens of posts per week, some of which detail updates on the bill.

The group is a place for parents to share photos, stories and messages of support, a growing network of those who feel they’ve been unfairly deprived of time with their children. The cover photo displays a crisis line phone number and the words “you’re not alone” pasted over a shadowy image of a man in a suit, adjusting his tie.

“We are NOT attorneys,” the photo reads. “We are NOT counselors. We are FATHERS.”

A public hearing on the bill that had been scheduled for June 24 was cancelled after a scheduling conflict. Helm said it’d likely be rescheduled to late August or September.

But in the meantime, parents such as Bundy are focused on moving forward — and on supporting those feel like they can’t.

“What motivates me is all the fathers that don’t know what to do,” Bundy said. “They just give up.”