Can a Pregnant Minor's Parents Ban Her Boyfriend from Seeing Her

[qwaspolk69]

Unless either (1) both you and the mother execute an acknowledgment of paternity for the child or (2) a court enters an order that you are the legal father of the child you will have no rights to the child whatsoever. I expect that given the parents’ hostile attitudes towards you (not unexpected given that you got their 14 year-old daughter pregnant) I would expect that they will keep you away from the hospital when the child is born and kept away from the mother after that, which they have the right to do, so you may not get a chance to execute that acknowledgement of paternity. If you don’t get to do that, then your only option will be to sue in court to get an order of paternity and then move for custody or visitation. That, of course, costs money to do. It is extremely likely that the best you will get is joint custody with the child, and if the mother and child are living 4 hours away that will make joint custody difficult. You wont be able to do anything, though, until after the child is born.

Assuming, however, that you either do execute the acknowledgement of paternity with the mother or get the court order making you the legal father of the child then you are not only have the right to seek custody and visitation but will have the obligation to pay child support. At age 15, that obligation of support will be quite a burden. If you don’t have a job now you’d better start looking for one.

Oklahoma is different. Read what was posted.

I am an OKIE and am appalled by the teen pregnancy rate of even kids from middle class, two parent homes. There is no shame associated with being an unwed parent.

OP, the BEST thing for this baby is for you, your girl friend and all of the parents consider adoption. You and your GF are children yourselves and are unprepared to raiise a child. You may be able to parent an infant and toddler but consider what you will do in your 20s with a teenager.

That is for them to decide. Not really legal advice either.

[cbg]

In the vast majority of states, Mom has sole custody simply by virtue of being a single, unwed mother without a court order. Oklahoma is different since even if his paternity is not immediately legally established he still has rights. But that aside, why wouldn't/shouldn't he have custody? I'm not following your logic on this one, babe.

I'm not saying he shouldn't have joint custody - sharing custody with the mother. I'm saying he's not going to get full custody with the mother having none. Which is how I interpreted his question. Maybe I'm using the terms incorrectly.

[Taxing Matters]

Oklahoma is different. Read what was posted.

I read the link that Dogmatique provided, but it does not actually say anything different than I said. Moreover, it is not the law, but merely someone’s summary of it. I read the part of it you quoted, and I believe it gave you an incorrect impression of Oklahoma law. Fathers do have, in the absence of a court order saying otherwise, equal rights to custody of the child with the mother. That’s true in every state. But the man must be determined the father before he will be able to assert those rights over the objection of the mother. Oklahoma only presumes paternity in situations in which the father is married to the mother or when the father has lived in the same household as the child for the first two years of the child’s life and has openly held out the child as his own during that period. Okla. Stat. §§10-7700-204. This latter part is what I believe that summary was discussing when it spoke of a father having rights to custody simply by his own acknowledgement of the child as his own. But obviously in this situation the OP has not yet met the requirement of living with the child in the same household for the first two years of the child’s life and given the mother’s parents’ apparent dislike for the OP it doesn’t seem likely that he will get the chance to do that.

In the absence of that presumption, paternity is established by one of the following:

B. The father-child relationship is established between a man and a child by:

1. An unrebutted presumption of the man’s paternity of the child under Section 8 of the Uniform Parentage Act;

2. An effective acknowledgment of paternity by the man under Article 3 of the Uniform Parentage Act, unless the acknowledgment has been timely rescinded or successfully challenged;

3. An adjudication of the man’s paternity;

4. Adoption of the child by the man; or

5. As otherwise provided by law.

Okla. Stat. §10-7700-201(B). I already covered the presumptions of paternity mentioned in (1), and as the presumptions do not apply to the OP because he is not married to the mother nor has lived in the same household as the child for two years and held out the child as his own during that time, we can rule that one out. So what is left? The acknowledgement of paternity, a court determination of paternity, adoption (which he does not need to do since he is presumably the biological father and can get a court determination of paternity) or some other method that Oklahoma law has yet to provide.

So the Oklahoma statutes reflect what I said earlier: he’s either going to need to get an acknowledgement of paternity or go to court and be determined as the father of the child if he wishes to assert his rights to the see the child right after the child is born. The summary that Dogmatique linked does not actually say anything contrary to that. The problem with the summary is that it was not specific enough about what kind of acknowledgement by the father would be enough, making it seem like all the father has to do is say “hey, that kid is mine” and he’d have rights to share custody with the child. But obviously Oklahoma would not let just any man get rights to custody simply on some unsupported assertion of being the father. He has to have lived in the same household as the child and held out the kid as his own for the first two years of the kid’s life, and we don’t have that situation here. The bottom line here is that Oklahoma is actually not all that different from other states, which is not surprising since it has adopted the Uniform Parentage Act, which has also been adopted by 15 other states.

[llworking]

In the vast majority of states, Mom has sole custody simply by virtue of being a single, unwed mother without a court order. Oklahoma is different since even if his paternity is not immediately legally established he still has rights. But that aside, why wouldn't/shouldn't he have custody? I'm not following your logic on this one, babe.

The logic is that nobody is likely to get full custody...not mom or dad. At least that is the way that I see it.

Oklahoma is different. Read what was posted.

Well, I read what was posted and clearly Taxing Matters is correct. If he is not legally dad, he has no rights. He becomes legally dad by either signing the AOP (assuming that mom will cooperate with that) or via court orders. Anything else would be incorrect.

[Plushfoot69]

What if my girlfriend herself wants me to take custody?

[Dogmatique]

What if my girlfriend herself wants me to take custody?

You're kidding right?

You have got to be trolling.

On the off chance that you're not ... HELL NO is the correct legal response.

You're welcome.

The logic is that nobody is likely to get full custody...not mom or dad. At least that is the way that I see it.



Well, I read what was posted and clearly Taxing Matters is correct. If he is not legally dad, he has no rights. He becomes legally dad by either signing the AOP (assuming that mom will cooperate with that) or via court orders. Anything else would be incorrect.

We're using different definitions of "full custody". It doesn't necessarily equate to sole custody.

Wait. OP, do you mean "custody of my CHILD", or "custody of my GIRLFRIEND"?

I might retract the "troll" comment. Maybe.

[Taxing Matters]

What if my girlfriend herself wants me to take custody?

If she wants to cooperate in giving you physical custody of the child she certainly may do that. You would still need to get a legal determination of paternity or a court order granting you legal custody to certain things with the child, however.

[Mercy&Grace]

You will have to provide for the child if you get to see the child. The Judge will want to know who will care for the child when you're at school and hopefully at work ? Who will buy the child's food, clothes, diapers, health care, etc. How will you answer these questions ? Can you or your parents pay for daycare or someone to watch the child in their or your home ? Will one of your parents not go to work on the day that you have the child ? If you don't drive and you have to pickup and/or return the child, how will you do that ? How will you get the child to the dr ? What is you are working and can't get off or have an important test ? Who will take the child to drs appointments ?