Adoption with an Unknown, Uninvolved, or Unsupportive Birth Father in Texas
Adoptions are an incredibly complex and emotional journey that women all across Texas experience daily. There are many aspects of creating an adoption plan that may surprise you. Things will come up that you never thought of before. There also may be parts of your adoption plan that you may not want to think about. An example of this is dealing with an unknown, uninvolved, or unsupportive birth father in Texas.
This causes a great amount of unease in many potential birth mothers. Many birth mothers feel they can’t tell their child’s birth father about their pregnancy, much less than they are pursuing an adoption in Texas. It is normal and understandable to feel nervous about dealing with this part of your adoption journey, but it is essential, even if your relationship with the birth father is not ideal. This post, along with other resources at Adoption Choices of Texas, will give you a guide about how to pursue an adoption without an unknown, uninvolved, or unsupportive birth father in Texas.
If you need help with adoption now, you can call us at 945-444-0333, text us at 945-444-0333, or email us here.
- An Unknown Birth Father
Not knowing who your child’s biological father is a situation that many potential birth mothers face in Texas. There is no shame in this. You have done nothing wrong by not knowing exactly who your child’s birth father is. It is a common occurrence that your adoption team will be able to help you with. Your adoption team will most likely try to find out who the birth father is and try to track him down. If they are unable to find him, your adoption will proceed as planned without his consent.
Consent from a birth father is often something that worries potential birth mothers. Oftentimes their adoption plan will be left uncertain until it is decided what the birth father’s wishes are. As stressful as it may seem to work out the consent of the unknown birth father, remember that after all Adoption Choices of Texas’s resources have been used and we are still unable to locate him, your adoption plan will proceed without his consent.
- An Uninvolved Birth Father
Birth mothers also have to work with an uninvolved birth father in Texas. In this situation, the birth father is aware of the pregnancy. While your wishes are to pursue an adoption, they might not want to be involved in any part of the process— pregnancy, adoption plan, or after birth plan. They are completed separately from your plans. They are completed separately from your plans.
Your adoption team will still try to reach out to him to see if he wants to be involved and will update him on any major changes. But, in the end, the adoption will proceed as you wish it to be. Now, this could change at some point during the adoption process in Texas. Birth fathers have thirty-one days after birth to assert their paternity wishes in an adoption decision. If he fails to do this, all his paternal rights will be terminated.
- An Unsupportive Birth Father
The most stressful kind of relationship that birth mothers have with their child’s biological father is the unsupportive birth father in Texas. This could look a few different ways depending on your situation. An unsupportive birth father may not support your choice to place your child for adoption, or they may not support the pregnancy itself and push you to get an abortion.
It is important to remember that in either scenario, according to Texas law, if you are unmarried and you wish to place your child for adoption, the biological father is unable legally to stop the adoption. Texas adoption law states that unless the birth father is married to the birth mother, they have no paternity rights regarding an adoption. This means that you do not need an unsupportive birth father’s permission to go ahead with an adoption.
Now, if you are married to the child’s biological father, consent is a big factor when trying to place a child for adoption. The birth father must be notified about your wishes, and he will have a say in the decision. There are exemptions to this, however. If the birth father is unable to properly care for a child, or if there is a history of abuse and neglect, a judge in Texas could rule in favor of adoption.
Adoption with an Unknown, Uninvolved, or Unsupportive Birth Father in Texas
Adoption planning can already be a stressful experience, but when you add an uncertain relationship with your child’s birth father, this could make the process a bit of a challenge. Luckily, there is something that you can do to help the process of consent from the birth father in Texas to go smoothly; be as honest as possible.
You must be as honest as possible with your adoption team about your relationship with the birth father. This will allow your adoption team to be able to assist you with either gaining consent, or moving on without his consent in an adoption with an unknown, uninvolved, or unsupportive birth father in Texas.
We at Adoption Choices of Texas understand that this will not be an easy part of the adoption plan. But, we, along with other resources at the agency, are here to help you in any way we can to make this part of your adoption as smooth as possible!
As an expectant woman or birth parent, to learn more about adoption, contact Adoption Choices of Texas. You can call us at 945-444-0333, text us at 945-444-0333, or email us here. If you are hoping to adopt, please visit us here. We look forward to helping you through your adoption journey!
Meet the Author: Sarah Henderson can best be described as someone with an eclectic taste in all things related to literacy and writing. She can be found reading a wide array of subjects from true crime novels to the next young adult fantasy series. Because of her love of literature, it has been Sarah’s dream to become a novelist herself.
After graduating from college in 2019, Sarah has been spending her time planning, researching and writing for her first novel. When she isn’t reading or writing her novel, you can find Sarah out for her early morning run, hiking a three-plus mile hike or cooking her favorite vegan meal. She presently lives in Indianapolis, IN and is waiting for the next chapter of her life to begin!
