Hello. I am 5 months pregnant, in Florida, 21 years old. I am no longer with my boyfriend, who is the father of my child. We still communicate almost daily, and we are halfway amiable. But I have decided not to list him on the birth certificate-- because although he *says* he would like to take on the role of a father, his actions do not reflect such... he is 37 years old; has no job, has nowhere to live, has a chemical dependency, is out on bond right now and will most likely be in jail when the baby is born, and has 3 (or more) other children whose lives he is not involved in.
He is a financial strain on me and was depending solely on me when we were living together, so I have no desire to request child support (now or in the future), as I am sure he will never be able to adequately provide it. He claims to want to be a part of both mine and the baby's lives, but I also know that he would never put in the time or effort to claim paternity through a court order. He won't even go to get a blood test done to check for a genetic disease that I am a carrier for, to rule in or out whether the baby will have it... instead, forcing my doctor to perform an amniocentesis which puts me at a greater risk of miscarriage.
Knowing that he will never put any effort forth to obtain any paternal rights, I was not too worried until I stumbled upon some things on this site... I have applied for public assistance. I already recieve food stamps and have applied through another program called healthy start (and wiic?) They had asked me the name and birthdate of the father, and I hesitated but they said they would not be able to help me without that information, so I told them. How likely is it that they will force a paternity test in hopes of him paying out? He has no money now and I doubt that he will ever have an on-the-books income. I DO NOT want his paternity established in the first place; whenever he gets mad and I try to break up with him he threatens to take me to court in the future for custody, based on some documented mental illnesses I have. I know he is not someone they would likely give custody to, but my history isn't exactly squeeky clean either.and I don't even want him having unsupervised visitation, as I do not trust to be able to be responsible for another human being. Although he has not pursued anything with the other children (that I know of), I am afraid that he might do something out of revenge; or that he might actually have a change of heart, realize he is getting older, and actually might want to be in the child's life, but without any actual responsibility being put forth (such as unsupervised visitation rights).
What are all of my options from this point on? Wait for a problem to arise, and out-lawyer him when the time comes? Or don't go any further with the public assistance? I really need some good advice and/or solutions.
(Sorry this was so long! Thanks if you actually made it all the way through!)

