Unwed mother's rights..

[Kmckeon]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

I am currently living with my boyfriend and we've been having problems. I recently found out I was pregnant and all of a sudden he's completely changed his religious beliefs. He is saying that I need to move out for 10 weeks and participate in counseling with his preacher and after that and our relationship is good we will get married. He's pushing religious beliefs that I don't believe in and I don't know if this will work out. If it doesn't work I will be going through the whole pregnancy on my own and he expects me to pop out the baby and split the time 50-50. At this point he says he won't be able to pay child support which is fine cause I can do it without full time. I need to know what my rights are because I don't think he really deserves hardly any time if he abandons me while I'm pregnant due to his sudden strict religious beliefs.

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

I am currently living with my boyfriend and we've been having problems. I recently found out I was pregnant and all of a sudden he's completely changed his religious beliefs. He is saying that I need to move out for 10 weeks and participate in counseling with his preacher and after that and our relationship is good we will get married. He's pushing religious beliefs that I don't believe in and I don't know if this will work out. If it doesn't work I will be going through the whole pregnancy on my own and he expects me to pop out the baby and split the time 50-50. At this point he says he won't be able to pay child support which is fine cause I can do it without full time. I need to know what my rights are because I don't think he really deserves hardly any time if he abandons me while I'm pregnant due to his sudden strict religious beliefs.

What you think he deserves is completely irrelevant.

With that said...because you're not married, you are not obliged to give him ANY time with the baby until paternity has been established and there is a court order for custody/visitation in place. You're free to move, relocate, do whatever you want basically - and that includes terminating the pregnancy.

(No, I'm not necessarily advocating that -I'm merely pointing out that you have choices).

You need to understand though that once paternity is established and Dad is awarded parenting time, it's out of your control - completely.

 

[angelpie545]

As an unwed mother, you have sole custody by default until paternity is established, either by you or dad. After that, dad can petition the court for joint legal custody and visitation, which he will likely receive. Infants usually visit with dad on a graduated schedule, which generally includes increasing time increments up to overnights.

 

[Kmckeon]

Thank you very much!

 

[CourtClerk]

Understand that he has no obligation to you while you're pregnant. That's your pregnancy. If you wanted it to be your (mutual) pregnancy, then you needed to have married him before you made the baby, but like most people, you put the cart before the horse.

You don't want to follow his religious beliefs. Well.... what's your plan when your (mutual) child comes out because he'll be allowed to expose his child to and allow his child to practice his religion and you're not going to be able to shut him out. Call me crazy, but I think moving out for 10 weeks and getting counseling is a GOOD idea. I fail to see the problem

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

I am currently living with my boyfriend and we've been having problems. I recently found out I was pregnant and all of a sudden he's completely changed his religious beliefs. He is saying that I need to move out for 10 weeks and participate in counseling with his preacher and after that and our relationship is good we will get married. He's pushing religious beliefs that I don't believe in and I don't know if this will work out. If it doesn't work I will be going through the whole pregnancy on my own and he expects me to pop out the baby and split the time 50-50. At this point he says he won't be able to pay child support which is fine cause I can do it without full time. I need to know what my rights are because I don't think he really deserves hardly any time if he abandons me while I'm pregnant due to his sudden strict religious beliefs.

I think its pretty clear that this is a guy that you really don't want to marry.

Once the baby is born, he can file to establish paternity, custody and visitation. There is little chance that he would be able to get 50/50 placement, and he won't have any choice about paying child support unless you don't ask for it and don't go on any kind of public assistance. (medicaid, food stamps, tanif etc)

What he is virtually guaranteed to get is joint legal custody (joint decision making) and a parenting schedule that would go in phases based on the baby's age. He might eventually get 50/50 in the long term, but not for quite a while.