Imagine knowing you have a biological child only miles away being raised by another father. Now imagine, no matter how much you fight, the law tells you that you essentially have no chance of having a relationship, let alone rights to your own child. Unfortunately, many fathers including myself, find themselves in this situation due to the Michigan Revocation of Paternity Act. 

In 2016, I had a relationship with a woman who led not only myself but many friends, family members and coworkers to believe she was in the process of divorcing her abusive, alcoholic husband. During our relationship, she became pregnant, denied the baby was mine, went back to her husband and chose to raise the baby with him as legal father. When the baby was 10 months old, she reached out to me under the guise that her husband had, once again, become abusive and asked me to take a paternity test for the baby. With 99.9% certainty, the results concluded that I was the child's father. She asked me to play a part in our daughter's life, allowing me and my family to spend time with her for the duration of that summer. She told me she would not fight when I filed for rights to our daughter. However, when I explained I only wanted a relationship with our daughter and not her too, she ripped our daughter back out of my life and chose to fight the court case with her husband. After several court hearings, in September 2019, the judge dismissed the case under the clause of the Revocation of Paternity Act that states that because I openly acknowledged that I knew she was married at the time the child was conceived, I have no presumption of rights. I never got the chance to prove my case that as a reasonable person, I truly believed she was in the process of a divorce.

There are several parts of the Revocation of Paternity Act that need to be addressed and changed to make it more in line with society's evolution and changing marital norms.

1.      The current law presumes that it is only the putative father's responsibility to know the marital status of his partner. There is absolutely no fault placed on the biological mother for her role in leading a putative father to believe her current marital status. This law continues to protect the "sanctity of marriage" yet allows the biological mother to step out on her marriage without consequences. The courts should not be able to simply dismiss the case because of the truthfulness of the putative father in admitting the acknowledgement of the biological mother's marriage. In cases where there is doubt regarding the marital status of the biological mother, the putative father should at least have the ability to prove or disprove their belief at the time of conception. 

2.       The courts should have no justification in dismissing a case where the biological mother has already chosen to allow the putative father a relationship with the child. Once the biological mother allows contact between the child and putative father, the courts should accept this as her acknowledging parentage and allow the father to continue to form a relationship with the child. 

3.       When the mother voluntarily chooses to have the child participate in a paternity test, she should not be able to revoke the results because they were not what she had hoped or expected. Once paternity is established through genetic testing, the putative father should be given the opportunity to prove his ability to care for his biological child.  As societal norms change, it has become acceptable for a child to have multiple forms of parental figures. Just because the putative father establishes parentage does not mean that the legal father would have to dissociate himself from the child's life. 

As I continue my fight, my next step is to find legislators that would be willing to listen to my plea and assist in making, absolutely necessary, changes to the Revocation of Paternity Act. My daughter just turned 4 years old and I have had no contact with her since her 1st birthday. I struggle every day with wondering how well she is doing and hoping she is growing up in a safe and healthy environment.

Please help me and other men that find themselves struggling with Father's Rights by signing this petition and getting the attention of Michigan Legislators.