People do not wait to have children until they are married anymore. There are times that men do not even know that they have fathered a child. Many women are making that all too important parenting decision alone since women are more independent than ever now. Women are making good incomes and can even support a family on their own but the question always remains, Does a family need a father present?

There is also women having a child and putting the child up for adoption without the father’s permission or knowledge of the child. Where are the father’s rights? Are they even being considered? The issue of father’s rights need to be more clearly defined in the courts. Men are more and more these days having to fight for custody of their children. A famous case is the Sofia Vergara vs. Nick Loeb case where he is fighting for custody of their two fertilized embryo girls to father. In other cases pregnant women are secretly having babies with their ex boyfriends and not even telling them of their pregnancy.  It is an upward battle for men   to navigate the courts to win their children back.

 What was love turns to hate with the men referring to the women they formerly loved and made love to as the egg donor now. Bitterness and hate has taken over the situation. In this country we have a Responsible Father Registry taking place in 25 states.  It is a place where unwed dads can sign up to find out if their child has been put up for adoption without their knowledge.  Very few people even know about the list. In South Carolina alone 30,000 children were born out of wedlock and less than 300 men in that state signed up.  The problem is that if you do not sign up, it is very possible that you can lose your  parental rights.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

It can be used by lawyers representing the adoptive parents saying that the biological father doesn’t care for the child because he did not sign onto the list.  They use it as an excuse to go forward free and clear with the adoption.  Now he must contest the adoption in the courts. In many cases, without signing up in the registry, fathers wouldn’t even know about the adoption. We are entering the season of thankfulness and children happy during the Christmas holidays. For some men, having their babies they didn’t even know they had being adopted is a financial blessing they don’t have to worry about. For other men, it is an opportunity for family lost forever. Father’s rights matter. Being informed about the registry is even more important no matter what you decide to do with the little blessings of children that have been granted to you.