If a man wants his children aborted, does he then loose parental rights after they are born?

[lizaanne]

Assuming the couple is not married. If a woman is pregnant, and the father wants the children aborted, then after the child is born wants to suddenly be in the child’s life, has there ever been a case where a man has lost his parental rights because of his prior desire for abortion?

Does anyone know of a case like this? I’m debating this with some friends and some are saying there is no reason for him to loose his parental rights, and some are saying that he should automatically loose those rights.

Just wondering if anyone has ever heard of such a thing.

~Liza

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

I’m not sure. I guess it’s possible for the mother to not put the name on the birth certificate.

But at the same time, ending parental rights, also ends parental duties, so the father wouldn’t be obligated to pay child support. So,hypothetically there would be a great many men who would give up their rights in order to not pay child support.

 

[lizaanne]

I think that mainly it’s the abortion issue - if the father wanted the child aborted, does this have any bearing on his ability to have parental rights? Even if he is on the birth certificate.

In general I agree with you, but it’s the situation of him wanting the child aborted that is the question.

~Liza

 

[Jermosh]

No he does not, but in the end its up to the mother if she wants to give the information or not. The father does not have any legal say in a abortion or birth in most states that I know of.

Also in some states its not even up to the mother if she is married, the husband gets added even if he is not the father. He also has to pay child support till he can prove he is not the father. My SiL had a relationship with her BiL 4 years after leaving her husband. But since she did not divorce him yet, his name was put on the certificate, and because its his brother he cannot get it taken off with a DNA test which is the requirement.

 

[Trader]

It is hard to tell what any individual judge would rule. This is a matter left to the states and there are at least 50 different sets of state laws that govern the situation. In many states child support varies greatly by county depending on who won the last election for prosecutor or district attorney. In most cases the custodial parent cannot get welfare benefits unless there is a good faith effort to determine the paternity of the child.

It seems a little weird to me, but married parents are not obligated to pay college costs for their children, but child support orders for divorced or never married parents frequently require parents to contribute toward the cost of college.

What is clear from a Catholic perspective is that every child has a right to be supported by both parents and the prior bad acts of one or both parents do not eliminate the rights of the child, even if parental rights need to be limited or terminated for the good of the child. Parents owe their children food, clothing, shelter, and education. The most important part of that education is a good example and there is no relief from that obligation.

 

[lobster]

If a man wants his children aborted, does he then loose parental rights after they are born?

No, but he should. Just as a mother should loose her parental rights if she wants her children aborted.

 

[lizaanne]

Thank you for your responses.

I think that for one of the people in this debate that it is just an emotional reaction that, if the guy wanted the child aborted, why should he ever be allowed to be a parent to the child after it is born. But the fact still remains, regardless of how horrible it is that he would desire abortion — he is still and will always be, the father of the child.

Sadly - I would imagine that most states would say that the desire to kill the child is irrelevant since it is not recognized as a person in the first place before birth. So desire for a “medical procedure” is not indicative of how he would parent.

What a world.

~Liza

 

[KestrelRose]

It is possible that a man may have wanted the child aborted until the child was born and the child became real to him. If he realized what a mistake he had made he can be forgiven and possibly be a better father for it.

 

[Cristiano]

I would look at the issue from three points of view. The first a legal one, the second a moral one, and the third purely Christian.

From the legal point of view a man does not have any saying into the woman “reproductive rights”. She has the right to decide if to have an abortion or not independently of the man opinion, and there is no legal recourse to that. Basing the consequences on that fact, then the man has automatically parental rights when the child is born independently of his previous opinion. Parental rights come with the birth, before that time they are only “reproductive rights”.

From the moral view if both partners were to have equal (name removed by moderator)ut in the decision, then the first answer would be that the man gives up the parental rights with his choice. However, this scenario is not possible because the woman can always override (as she does in this case) the man decision and so they are not acting as equal. So in this case they do not have equal (name removed by moderator)ut, they are not equal, and so the moral consequences will be different for the man and the woman. He can maintain the parental rights because he has been forced to become a parent.

Finally we have to consider the Christian approach where we always have to accept a change of heart and redemption of an individual, and so a man maintains his parental rights.