Paternity Fraud: The Worst Kind of Fraud

When I rail about the morality of women and the necessity of having sex only after marriage and people call me some kind of conservative nutcase?

When people are defrauded out of money we all cry foul and demand jail. What do we do when a woman uses AN INNOCENT CHILD to defraud someone out of their money for 18 years or more?

We let her keep the money!

To wit:

Fathers and Families has helped introduce two paternity fraud bills in the the California legislature this year, one of which (SB 377) will address the injustices faced young men like Thomas. In Thomas’ support letter to Senator Rod Wright (D-Los Angeles), the bill’s author, he explains:
I am writing to you in support of SB 377, because when I was 17 years-old I was victimized by the problem which the bill addresses.

The hospital manipulated me into signing a paternity declaration when my former girlfriend gave birth to a son she said was mine. There was no parental consent nor did I have access to legal counsel or advice. I was never informed of the legal implications of what I was being asked to sign and I did not fully understand them. I thought that because I was a minor, there couldn’t be serious legal implications. I have since learned differently.

The mother of the child has not allowed me to have a relationship with the boy, and several of her relatives have told me that another young man who I knew in our community is in fact the biological father.

I tried to rectify the situation, but the judge ruled me to be the biological father and denied my request to establish paternity, even after the child’s mother initially agreed in court to have DNA testing done.

I am now on the hook for 18 years of child support to support a boy I’m not able to see and who perhaps is not even mine. Moreover, someday I would like to marry and have a family, and I am instead faced with the potential prospect of losing a quarter of my after-tax earnings because I was defrauded.

SB 377 would resolve these kinds of injustices by “invalidating a voluntary declaration of paternity that is signed by a minor parent if it is not also signed by the parent or guardian of the minor parent.” SB 377 would also require that the parent or guardian of the minor parent receive oral and written information relating to the voluntary declaration of paternity.

I wish this legislation had been in place when I was 17—it would have saved me a lot of pain and problems.

Sincerely,
Thomas Rodriguez
Riverside, CA