Again, Judges in Missouri have ordered a man to make support payments for a child he didn’t father. This time even the child’s mother agrees the man is not the father. Yet a state agency says he is. The appeals court agreed with the state that this man should be thrown in jail. this man and others are caught in a national issue that pits fairness against the power of the state to avoid the expense of finding the real fathers of children.
On any given weekday, millions of people are tuned in to watch sensational shows where a dysfunctional adult and the pawns of their dysfunction are used in a ratings race by the shows. Never knowing who their true father is is the long term suffering the children will endure. Nothing good comes from the display of a mother testing many men to find out who fathered her baby and forever follow the child.
Many men nationwide are trapped into paying child support because they either are declared such administratively, or do not contest paternity. Unlike the Missouri Legislature several states have recently changed (or are considering changes) that allow men to introduce DNA evidence and bring truth back to the system. Several bills in the Missouri House and Senate would have allowed that here, but the assigned committees did nothing to bring this legislation forward.
In most states, a reputed father has a short time to contest and can actually be declared the parent without his knowledge. In Missouri and Kansas, that period is one year. Child support is usually required to be paid until the child turns 18, and in most cases til they graduate college. Judges have a clear legal process designed to disregard true paternity as long as there is anybody that they can force to provide for the child. This is tantamount to state sponsored paternity fraud.
If there is a requirement of paternity testing before any requirement of child support a great deal of expense, pain, and family disruption can be avoided.And this also gives some women the opportunity to take more responsibility for their actions. No longer will lies hurt so many lives for so long.
And by long run we mean a very long run. In one of these cases a Missouri Court found “…is now held to be the father of (the child) for all purposes and all time,” , “despite both mother and father’s statements to the contrary and without any determination of that relationship by a court of law.”
It is unfair that a man has to pay for a child that is not his, regardless of true paternity a target is still required by law to support the children even if he did not father them. It is obvious that in Missouri paternity fraud is rampant.
So often we hear about dead beat dads and womens rights.But what about the men who do the right thing and want to be responsible? Where are the rights for these men? Along with mandatory paternity testing their should be a mandatory law stating that the woman should pay back the child support received over how ever long period the time due to the fact that the child/children are not his.
Tags: dead beat dad, dead beat mom, dna testing, missouri, missouri courtpaternity fraud, missouri house, missouri legislature, missouri senate, paternity, unfair