Paternity Wars

Men should not have to pay child support for children who are not theirs. That sounds simple and fair enough, but it's not. All over America men are being forced to pay for kids they were deceived into believing were theirs. And that's not fair.

This issue first caught my attention several years ago when a rash of stories about non-fathers being forced to pay child support hit the media. One story that got a lot of air time centered on a man who didn't discover that one of his three sons wasn't his until after his divorce, yet he was ordered to pay support for that child along with the others. And then there was the man who not only wasn't the father of the girl he was ordered to pay for, but he didn't even know the mother. He just had the misfortune of having the same name as her ex-boyfriend. I was instantly struck by the injustice done to those men. Why should they or any men be forced by law to pay for children they didn't sire?

Supporters of this treacherous practice say the best interest of the child should overrule any concern about fairness to adults. They say that kids need support no matter what and they also point out that men do have a time period in which they can contest a claim of paternity. This is true but the time period is only 30 days long and when it's over there's little chance of a successful appeal. A man is stuck even if he never got the initial claim in the time frame allowed. That's what happened to a Florida man just last year.

Francisco Rodriguez was targeted for $10,000 in back child support, plus $305 in monthly payments, for a girl DNA testing proved wasn't his. The girl's mother, a former girlfriend of Rodriguez, testified that he didn't father her daughter and even requested that the child support payments be stopped. However, the state of Florida persisted in charging Rodriguez because he missed the deadline for contesting paternity. I don't know the final outcome for Francisco Rodriguez and his family but I pray it was just. If it wasn't Rodriguez is stuck paying money to another man's child while his own children go without. That is NOT fair!

How can we stop this insanity? Simple. First, women who commit paternity fraud must be prosecuted and made to pay back any money they received from their victims. Second, we must require all children to be given a paternity test at birth. This will let men know their true relationship to a child up front. Men who choose to assume responsibility for a child knowing they are not the father shouldn't be allowed to back out later. So post-natal paternity tests will protect both men and children. This isn't a perfect solution, though. Some women might opt for a clandestine abortion rather than risk their infidelity being exposed. As a prolife person that possibility weighs heavily on me but, in our imperfect world, I feel this trade off is necessary to achieve overall justice.

Feminist types will no doubt oppose my solutions. Their problem is with men, not with men who don't pay child support. They have a very vengeful mindset and believe that women defrauding or harming men is just payback for the injustices of male chauvinism. They won't say that in polite company, of course. No, their desire for revenge will be cloaked with a bogus concern for "the best interest of the child".

Well, the best interest of the child is to be loved and supported by its REAL father, or a man who freely assumes the role of father while knowing his non-paternal status. Surely the child's best interest aren't served when a fraud that's been perpetrated for years is exposed, causing upheaval in the lives of all involved. So we as a society must take paternity fraud for the serious crime that it is, punish it like we mean it, and prevent it when we can. That is in the best interest of everyone.