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legal rights of an unwed father
My lil brother has a baby on the way, and is being very responsible about it, but her parents are very controlling of her. They are both legal age, she 19 and him about to be 20. The baby is due at the end of the month, and the soon to be grandmother called to tell him he's not welcome at the hospital when the baby comes, and if the babys mom tried to call him, she'll rip the phone from the wall. The sad thingis they have her so brainwashed that I'm sure she's afraid to call anyway, and her mom is a paralegal, so she's threatened to keep the baby away from us. We live in TEXAS, does anyone know what he should do????
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Your brother needs to see a lawyer. The person who has no rights is the grandmother to be. The people with rights are the parents of the child be they married or not.
If the mother is being medically treated under her parents insurance, this does not give her mother any say in her care or the care of the baby. The future mother is of legal age in Texas or any other state. The future father of this child has rights, in Texas or any other state.
In fact he is responsible for this child financially until this child is 18 years old. With this responsibility comes certain rights such as custody and visitation. The grandmother to be being a paralegal means nothing more than a scare tactic to try and convince your brother that she is right and he is wrong.
If your brother cannot afford an attorney on his own have him contact the local legal aid society for help. They will file the legal papers to see to it that his rights are preserved and that his financial responsibilities' to the child are spelled out and approved by the courts.
Grandma can stand on her head, but once the courts are involved if she interferes she is the one who can go to jail.
Even if grandma to be was to claim her daughter was under age at time of conception, which is not possible. There is a law called HIPPA which covers young people from age 14 and older giving them full medical confidentiality over their reproductive rights. As a paralegal future grandma would know this and know she has no say in her daughters pregnancy.
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I live in Texas and she's full of shit.
She has no right to keep him from the baby after it's born. He needs to be there and speak to the doctors and make damn sure his name is on the birth certificate.
You probably want to speak to a lawyer. In an unwed situation until you go to court for a custody agreement there is no legally enforcable order so the mother can keep your brother away from the baby. She is not legally required to turn the child over to your brother and he would have the same rights.
But because he's the guy, he's got to watch his step. No fighting. He has to go to the hospital and he has to keep his calm. I would say he should not go alone, a number of your family members should go with him as quiet support. If they protest, simply inform the doctors of who he is.
If they want to fight your little brother they have zero grounds to deny him his son.
Start thinking smart. Talk to an attorney before the baby comes. Texas is a one party recording state. He can record conversations with the family of his kid's mom and they are court admissible. Catch them saying things like "we will rip the phone out of the wall if she tries to call you" and that they will keep the baby away from you and those could be compelling evidence in court.
The court is going to by default want to leave the child with it's mother, but if the mother can be shown to be unfit (she seems like it from what you said) to be in charge of a child and under the influence of a pretty appalling set of relatives if you can put your baby brother up in court and demonstrate to a judge that you're more than ready to formula feed this kid and that your family is rallying around the kid, he might possibly maybe but probably not get custody. Depends alot on the judge and the area.
Whatever you do, talk to an attorney. Is her family ready to pay out 10-20 grand fighting you in court? Because at the very least a judge will probably hand your little brother joint custody and a couple of visits a week by default.
In summation
1) Talk to a lawyer
2) Do not not show up to the hospital
3) He has to sign the birth certificate
4) Do not get into any verbal confrontations. Display no hostility.
5) Consider recording them if you think you can politely bait them into saying some terrible shit in front of you. Remember that you can ditch a recording if it makes you both sound bad, and use it if it only makes them sound bad.
Talk to a lawyer is not negotiable. The longer you wait the more expensive it's going to get and the harder he will have to fight to have rights to his son.
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I am sure there must be some rights he has. If it was the other way around and an unwed woman has a baby and goes after a guy for childsupport, he has to prove with DNA that he is the father. It is best that he call somewhere he can get enough free legal advice to see if he has a case. Unless someone on here is a lawyer and answers you, you might check to see what Texas laws are on line. But find out if he has a case.
I cannnot imagine why the whole family want to screen him out unless they don't think he's up to their standards of who she should marry and have kids with. Yes it's not of their business. But on the other hand, your brother might want to consider having nothing to do with her beyond getting visitation rights, if she is so weak that she won't stand up against her family. Imagine the future headaches he'd have to deal with having constantly interfering inlaws. It's not worth it.
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