My girlfriend is pregnant approximately 6 weeks. She refuses to go to the doctor and is dieting and coloring and bleaching her hair. I bought her OTC prenatal vitamins but I am not certain that she is taking them because she doesn't want her mom to know she's pregnant. Do I have any rights to protect my unborn baby because she obviously don't care?
Answer
I would need more facts from you, but, hypothetically, based only on what you wrote, ie. bleaching her hair and not taking pre-natal vitamins, is not negligence and it appears at this point that you would have no control over her or the fetus.
However, IF her actions were negligent or harmful to herself or the fetus, such as if she were using drugs or starving herself or hitting herself in order to abort the fetus (child), CPS can be called and they can seek an action for guardianship over your girl-friend (and of course, the fetus (unborn child), or if this occurs you can hire a private attorney and seek guardianship over your girl-friend, but this is a difficult process and you will need to retain an experienced guardianship attorney who has experience in child custody in order to assist you. If a custody order over your girl-friend is entered, it will require that she be placed in some type of medical facility/center or rehab facility/center during her pregnancy. The experienced guardianship and child custody attorney should be able to assist you in locating one of these facilities.
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Next, generally, most states provide that until the fetus (the unborn child) is born, it is not a "person" or a "human being," as to rights. However, there are criminal statutes that protect a fetus' rights. Those options will need to be researched by a qualified family law attorney, and, this is again, only IF your girl-friend is negligent or harming herself and/or the fetus (unborn child). And, IF actions your girl-friend did to the fetus during her pregnancy seriously affected the child and this is detected when the child is born, more-than-likely CPS will be called by the hospital and the child will be removed from her custody by CPS, before she leaves the hospital.
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Next, and important, abortion is normally allowed up until the third tri-mester of pregnancy. Therefore, your girl-friend can seek an abortion up until then, and there would be little that you could do to stop her in this process, unless again, you sought court action based on negligent and harmful behavior and obtained an order from the court to otherwise take custody of both of them.
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Next, when the baby is born, and if she harmed the baby through negligent pre-natal actions that were not detected at birth, you could possibly use this information against her to try to obtain primary or sole custody rights over the child through the assistance of an experienced child custody attorney. You would need to show that prior to the babies' birth you tried to prevent her actions and that she still continued to act in a negligent manner, and that her actions thus caused the baby to have issues. The attorney would need to work with medical specialists and then prepare and file a suit affecting the parent child relationship, including a paternity suit, to move for custody.
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Further, you are going to need to retain a qualified child custody attorney anyway, to prepare and file a suit affecting parent child relationship with a paternity determination, when the child is born since you both are not married and in order for you to establish that you are the true biological father of the child. This will allow you to seek available custody and decision making rights relating to the child and be named the father - because until an order is entered, you are not legally the child's father, even if you are listed on the child's birth certificate.
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Hopefully none of this will have to take place and your girl-friend will grow into the pregnancy, take care of herself and the fetus, and be a good mother and love the child after it is born.
I would suggest that you try speaking to her mother, either on your own, or together with your girl-friend to show her that you are supportive and not judgmental. If her mother is involved you may get more support.
And, I would also suggest that you consider going to counseling with your girl-friend, as she may need to speak to a professional about this situation and see that you are supportive of her condition and not trying to be judgmental or opinionated (I'm not saying that you are but sometimes people come across that way, and they don't see it).
Keep in mind that pregnancy is a BIG change for almost all women, even those who want and care for the their unborn child from the very beginning.
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Goldstein & Scopellite, PC has qualified child custody attorneys, family law lawyers and paternity attorneys available to represent you at either one of their law offices located in Dallas, Texas and Tucson, Arizona - Please visit their websites at www.LawyersDallas.com and www.Lawyers-Tucson.com for more information or to contact them. Thank you.
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