Pregnant, but dad doesn’t want baby
DEAR MRS MACAULAY,
I am seeking advice about the laws in Jamaica as it relates to men who refuse to register their children. I am pregnant and on my own. I was told by the potential father of my child to do an abortion, but I refused. He vowed that if I didn’t do it he would not help in any way, claiming that the responsibility of caring for a second child is too much for him. I do not have a job.
However, my family comforted me and promised to help me take care of the child until I am able to provide. But the problem that I am contemplating and that I’m worried about is that he is insisting that if I have the child, I will have to give it my surname, as he will not participate in the registration process.
What should I do in this case?
I am sorry to learn about the selfish and irresponsible decision and conduct of the man with whom you had unprotected sexual relations, which resulted in your becoming pregnant. I can assure you that he cannot successfully renege on his parental responsibilities as long as you do what is right and due to your child.
It is very good that your family is standing by you and has promised to assist you and your child after the birth.
So what is the legal situation? The law, in the Registration (Births and Deaths) Act, directs that it is the duty of a mother and father of a child to provide the Registrar of Births, within 42 days of the birth of their child, information on the particulars necessary for the birth to be registered as appears in the Prescribed Form, and in the presence of the Registrar, to sign the form.
In the circumstance where the mother and father are not married, as in your case, you can give to the Registrar a declaration in the form required by the Act, and signed by you, in which you name the person you say is the father of your child. A notice of this fact will be sent to him and if he does nothing after he receives it, then his name remains in the records of the birth of the child as the father. He can, however, sign and submit a counter notice that he is not the father. He must do so, however, within three months of the date he received the notice. If he does so within the statutory period of three months, then the Registrar will not take any action to include his name in the records.
If your child is born in a hospital — public or private — it is the duty of the chief resident officer there to give the information necessary for the birth to be registered or to sign the registration form and counterfoil and to submit the same to the Registrar within 14 days of the birth.
If you do not name the father of your child after the birth in the hospital or to the midwife (if one does your delivery), then you can thereafter, if he still refuses to be the child’s father, apply to the Family Court in your parish or to the Supreme Court under the Status of Children Act for a declaration of paternity and as amended by the Maintenance Act, you need not wait until you give birth to make the application for a declaration of paternity, as it gives you the right to apply to the court while you are still pregnant.
You can, at the same time that you make the application for the declaration of paternity, also apply for maintenance for your child. You did not say whether you and the man lived together as man and wife for a period of five years. If you did so, then you can also apply to the same court and at the same time for maintenance for yourself.
Let me make something very clear to you, and the father must be made to know and recognise this also. It is your child’s fundamental human right that we are talking about. Your child has the right to have the name which in law he should have; that is, to have his father named in his birth records and to bear his father’s name. Since the alleged father has walked away, it is your duty to make sure that your child’s father is named as such, so that your child will have what he is entitled to in law and in fact.
So if you do not do the declaration naming this man as your child’s father at the time of reporting the birth of your child to the officer at the hospital, you must do the application for a declaration of paternity to the court, where a DNA test will be ordered and once the result shows that he is the father, he will be bound by law to meet his obligations as the father and the declaration will be sent to the Registrar of Births to be included in the records of your child’s birth.
You must do what you must for your child. It is your duty to act on behalf of your child. Remember, applications in the Family Court are free of legal costs. With your family’s support, you can do what you must for your child.
Good luck.
Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.DISCLAIMER:The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.
Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.
DISCLAIMER:
The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.
