Tag: adoption of a baby

What Do You Know About Father’s Rights In Adoption At S.C

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What Do You Know About Father's Rights In Adoption At S.C

What Do You Know About Father’s Rights In Adoption At S.C – Is giving a baby up for adoption without the father’s consent in South Carolina possible?, Does the birth father have to agree to adoption?, What happens if a mother wants to give a baby up for adoption but the father does not?.

These are all common questions that pregnant women considering adoption in South Carolina ask, especially if their relationship with their baby’s birth father is complicated. If this is your situation, our law firm can help. We can discuss with you birth father rights in adoption and how they apply to your circumstances, as well as guide you through any necessary legal steps involving your baby’s father as you move forward with your adoption process.

Because this can be a complex area of adoption law, it’s important to contact our professionals as early as possible in your adoption journey for our free and confidential legal representation.

What are the Birth Father Rights in Adoption in S.C.?
Often, women considering adoption ask, “Does the father have to give consent for adoption in South Carolina? Can I give my child up for adoption without the father’s consent?”

This is a complicated area of law. Just as you have rights as a prospective birth mother, a prospective birth father also has certain rights under South Carolina law — but they will be determined by several different circumstances.

If a birth father is married to a birth mother, his consent or relinquishment must be obtained or his rights must be terminated by the court.

A birth father who is not married to the birth mother can block an adoption only if:

  • The father openly lived with the child or the child’s mother for a continuous period of six months immediately preceding the placement of the child for adoption, and the father openly held himself out to be the father of the child during the six-month period; or
  • The father paid a fair and reasonable sum, based on the father’s financial ability, for the support of the child or for the expenses incurred in connection with the mother’s pregnancy or with the birth of the child, including, but not limited to, medical, hospital, and nursing expenses.

The birth father’s rights are also affected by considerations such as whether his efforts to support the birth mother were thwarted. He must use prompt and good faith efforts to demonstrate his commitment to the child.

If you are placing a child for adoption who is more than six months old, the birth father’s rights and responsibilities will be slightly different. Attorney Jim Thompson can explain the South Carolina birth father adoption laws in your individual situation.

In either case, even though consent of the birth father may not be required, he is entitled to receive notice of the adoption proceedings. This can be accomplished by personal service or, if he cannot be located, by publication in a newspaper.

Do I Have to Identify the Baby’s Father?
Sometimes, prospective birth mothers ask, “Is adoption possible without knowing who the father is?”

In South Carolina, a birth mother has a right to privacy and cannot be compelled to identify the biological father if his consent to the adoption is not required. In other words, unless the birth father has lived with the birth mother for six consecutive months immediately preceding the placement of the child for adoption, or he has contributed a fair and reasonable sum of money for pregnancy-related expenses, his consent to the adoption is not required and the birth mother is not compelled to identify him.

In Evans v. South Carolina Department of Social Services, our Supreme Court held that to compel a biological mother to identify the birth father would undermine the confidentiality that is a foundation of the adoption process and would violate the mother’s right to privacy. At the Law Offices of James Fletcher Thompson, we will always respect your privacy and will explain in detail the process ahead of you if there is an unknown father in your adoption.

So, what exactly happens in an adoption when the father is unknown? When a birth mother does not know the identity of the birth father or she declines to reveal his identity, the Responsible Father Registry comes into play.

What is the Responsible Father Registry?
South Carolina has devised a method to protect an unknown or unidentified birth father through the South Carolina Responsible Father Registry. The registry is a way through which a man who has potentially fathered a child with a woman to whom he is not married can ensure that he receives notice of an adoption action involving the child.

In order to establish his right to notice, a man must record his name in the state-maintained database — the registry — along with the name of the woman. Then, if and when an adoption action is filed regarding a child of the woman who is named in the registry, the law group will require the party initiating the action to notify the registered man of the proceedings so that he may come forward to assert his rights to the child if he so chooses.

As a prospective birth mother, you will bear no responsibility for identification in the Responsible Father Registry. Only a potential father can take these steps to protect his parental rights.

You can always contact us for free online or by calling one of our adoption counselors at 864-680-8038 or toll free at 1-800-796-8373.

Adopting A Child I Never Thought Of Before

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Adopting A Child I Never Thought Of Before – When I was in my 20s, I had a friend who had just found out he was adopted, and he was very angry. I remember thinking that it was nice of his parent to tell him. Some people don’t tell their kids that they were adopted. Some people never find out they were adopted. I suggested to him he should give his parents a chance and talk about his birth parents. When I thought about what he was going through, I thought that I would have liked to know if I had been adopted, and I would probably want to know my birth parents.

When my toddler was adopted, I thought from the other side. I was the one that was giving up my parental rights to another family. I was hopeful. I thought it was a good thing for my family (myself and my two children).

Prior to having to be in that situation, I remember thinking to myself I couldn’t imagine how anyone could give their child up for adoption, especially after my first child was born who was by then a teen. I couldn’t imagine how someone could go through pregnancy and birth and just give their child away. So that was my pre-conceived notion at the time.

But when I think about when it happened to meI was just hopeful that I was making the best decision possible. I didn’t really make the decision, it was made for me by Children’s Aid society but in some ways it felt like my decision to let them go to give them a better life.

The adoption was a result of child welfare getting involved.
When my kids were apprehended, I was devastated. It felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest. I remember talking to the worker and begging for my kids to be placed together. I think when kids are placed into the foster care system it’s very hard, it’s better for them to be placed together. Because when you’re taking the kids from the family that’s already a split, and then splitting the kids again is hard. From the children’s side, that would be 3 times as hard. I just lost my children, but they are losing their family. I was lucky that they went to the same home.

Reflecting on it, I believe that what my kids went through was much harder than what I went through. I know it’s hard for children’s aid to keep kids together, but I think that’s important.

Before the adoption, when they were in foster care, having a relationship with them was very hard. With my teen it was easier because she could communicate. I remember one time when both my girls came in and my toddler (then 2) had had her hair done and she said, “Mommy did it” (she was talking about the foster mom at the time). I felt like I was stabbed. It tore me. That was really hard.

At the time I didn’t really think about it but I think my oldest had the hardest time of all of it. She lost her mom, she became a surrogate mother to her sister. She probably felt a big responsibility on her shoulders. These were things I didn’t think about at the time, I was just more thinking about me.

Obviously, I appreciated every moment spent with them but every time I had to leave, and they didn’t come home with me it was hard.
The CAS was fabulous. They were very generous with me. They gave me a lot of chances. They were rooting for me. I think they gave me a little over two years to get my s**t together. But at the end of two years, I was still using.

They told me that my toddler would be adopted. But it wasn’t until I was actually in the courtroom, and the judge was telling me that it felt real. I don’t remember the wording; I just remember crying through the whole thing. I remember being very respectful, saying ‘yes your honour’ and answering any questions the judge had.

I was using at the time so don’t have a lot of memories of that time. I was shell shocked, it was almost like PTSD, from the point of my kids leaving the house. I remember them walking down the hall and knowing that they were leaving. From then to being told by the judge that I was giving up my rights as a parent, I was just trying to get through each day.

At the time, my best friend had a child of the same age.

We were pregnant at the same time. She gave birth in June and I did in August. She was going through the same thing, she lost her child as well. I don’t like saying I lost my kids because I am responsible for what happened. I didn’t lose my kids, I was the catalyst for them leaving. Children’s Aid didn’t do it because of them, they did it because of me. I am responsible for their actions.

My friend’s adoption was a closed adoption and the last day she saw he daughter, was the last day she saw her daughter. She didn’t know where her daughter went, or to which family. The family that adopted my toddler kept a connection. I met the mom of her adopted family, she told me I could send cards, she told me she would send pictures.

For my friend it was almost like a death, she mourned her child. I was lucky because I got to keep a connection. I think having the connection is important, it’s important for the parents and the kids.

The only thing that made me uncomfortable was I was watching my youngest grow up and it was without her permission. I felt I was invading her privacy as a person, maybe she doesn’t want that connection. I think I got the best of the deal because I was able to watch her grow up.

To me, I don’t consider my teen to be adopted. I got lucky because the adopted parents also took my teen daughter in but I was able to keep seeing and visiting with her. But I didn’t see her as being adopted, I just saw her as being fostered and she was still my daughter she was just living with another family. *