This is an ugly situation.
She wanted an abortion. He didn’t. She relented. But she gave the baby up for adoption without seeking his consent.
What to do?
While many would acknowledge this is a tough situation, this kind of thing goes on all the time for abortions. If a woman wants to abort, a man has no legal recourse to save their child. So it follows logically that a man should have no legal recourse when it comes to adoption too, right?
A Texas man is battling for custody of his first-born daughter after his wife successfully gave her up for adoption without telling him – to a family who now refuses to return the girl.
Terry Achane, 31, a drill instructor in South Carolina, says it was just days after he left his pregnant wife for his new job out of state that she quietly signed over their unborn baby to a family of seven in Utah.
His newborn baby, whom he had wanted to name Teleah, was given to Jared and Kristi Frei, who now say the girl is theirs and won’t give her back without a fight.
This is a confusing situation but what’s made very clear is that men’s rights are non-existent when it comes to children.
Update: If Texas does say both parents have to sign for an adoption as some commenters are saying, then it makes no sense that fathers shouldn’t have a say in abortion then. Right?
December 4, 2012 at 9:21 pm
Somethings not right here. In order for an adoption to go through, both parents must sign fairly detailed waiver forms that are filed with the court as well as having time to revoke those very waivers within a certain period of time prior to the adoption being finalized. If she lied and said the father did not exist or was dead, then she committed a fraud on the court which should invalidate the adoption. I suspect the father will be getting the child back.
December 4, 2012 at 9:55 pm
It's not just the father's right and duty to rear his child; it is also the right of the child to have the love and care of her father. There ought to be no delay in getting that child returned to her father.
December 4, 2012 at 10:04 pm
I have some personal experience with Texas adoption law and, as Ryan, says something is missing from the story. Texas law requires a prospective adoptive family to seek out the father (and demonstrate to the court that they have put sufficient effort into doing so) before the father's parental rights can be terminated without his consent.
December 4, 2012 at 10:16 pm
i'm coming to this story for a second time…the first time i heard of it the adopted couple had set up a blog stating how they'd worked with the adoption agency and that the father was either unknown or had already consented to the adoption…now the court records are showing the judge questioned the agency and they knowingly facilitated the adoption and warned the couple 'the mother was doing this with out her husbands knowledge, father didn't know or consent to this procedure and would likely demand the return of his child should he ever find out.' The were asked if they wanted to continue KNOWNING THIS..and they agreed. The first time around my heart melted for this couple… thinking omg how could this man give up his child that way and now want the baby back…but know he NEVER knew… this really just amounts to human traffic and its sick all the way around… these folks spent 25k on a baby ( and if you read their blog, the desire wasn't because the wanted another baby, they'd actually adopted a young african american boy the year before and they wanted him to have siblings that look like him as their other 5 kids are white).I don't doubt that they have bonded with this child, but they did so illegally and she should be returned to her father.
December 4, 2012 at 11:05 pm
How is this not kidnapping? The baby is his child as well.
December 4, 2012 at 11:07 pm
What's the big deal?
I was divorced against my will and lost any custodial rights to my wife because
she simply wanted to get rid of me. I did not have the chance to raise our children; her lover did.
The Catholic Church has supported her adultery since.
I do not see why one one is Catholic would even care about this and not about
what goes on everyday in divorce, encouraged by annulments and supported
by every bishop in the United States, as well as the Pope.
Catholics crack me up and I am one.
December 5, 2012 at 4:54 am
@Anonymous: "Custodial rights"? Other than in cultures (like that of pagan Rome) where women are legal non-adults, the wards of their male relatives, husbands do not have "custodial" rights to their wives.
Given that you don't understand that, what are the odds you actually understand any of the legal proceedings that you were involved in? Are you sure the annulment (or more properly "declaration of nullity") wasn't on the eminently canonical grounds that you plainly don't actually know what a husband's rights regarding his wife are?
Do you even actually know what an annulment is? It seems to me that in order to have a right to this grudge you plainly bear, you would have to know what was or was not done.
December 5, 2012 at 7:17 am
Man, this is sad.. No matter how bad a husband or wife is, he/she should always have a right to say in such matters!
Adoption Miami
December 5, 2012 at 3:37 pm
So many men deny their children. This man is fighting tooth and nail to get his daughter back. Hope he has a great support system. He deserves it. God bless him in his efforts !!!!
December 5, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Liberate men now! Burn our jockstraps! Buy no condoms! Abstain from women! Join the mens liberation movement!
December 5, 2012 at 9:53 pm
There was an old saying: mama's baby, daddy's…maybe. Since 1973 it's be in practice if not in law : mama's baby, sperm donor's only if she feels like it.
December 6, 2012 at 12:58 pm
she claims to love her child but rather than letting the father raise his child shed rather live in poverty than let him raise her. She is a vindictive nut.