Imagine--you're seventeen, hold down a part-time job, and are successful
in school. You're on the school's football team, baseball team, and
have no criminal history or history of drug use or alcohol use. Your
girlfriend gets pregnant, tells you you're the father, and you prepare
accordingly to have the child raised and cared for in your home by your
mother while you're in school. The crib is assembled and the nursery is
complete, a whole separate room in your parents' home for your new
arrival.
Delivery day comes. The mother of your child refuses you as the father and puts the child up for adoption.
Like most dads you would go through the courts to
fight for the rights to be the parent to your child--even if your
girlfriend or ex feels the child
should be put in adoptive care.
In a recent court ruling in Bakersfield, California, a
17-year-old father, Christian Diaz, was denied parental rights to his
own child, forcing the baby into adoptive care. A willing father was
denied the chance to raise his child, just because the child's mother
made a decision on her own, left his name off of the birth certificate,
and persuaded hospital authorities that he wasn't the father and to keep
him away from the child.
Father's rights are necessary. Cases like this, where a
fit and willing father is stepping up to the plate to be a dad, remind
us that there is still a long road ahead of us. Being with our children
and raising them is a right we have, and until the courts can see this,
we will continue to fight for our rights!
This is just wrong and he should have custody of his child!!! Just how can a court do this?
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