Court Opinion

ID: 9784213
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 20:40:09.090828+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:35:50.996572
License: Public Domain

Beier, J.,
concurring: I concur in the result and reasoning of the panel’s decision. The automobile purchase the father wishes to rely upon not only relieved the mother-to-be of her debt but also of a substantial asset that provided her with transportation. It did not constitute “support for the mother during the six months prior to the child’s birth.” K.S.A. 59-2136(h)(4).
I write separately only to emphasize briefly the central point of cases such as these and the implications for unwed fathers and the lawyers who assist them in asserting their parental rights.
An unwed man who learns that his unwed sexual partner is pregnant and intends to carry the pregnancy to term has only one way to ensure he can exercise his parental rights after the birth, regardless of whether the mother intends to exercise hers: He must relinquish possession and control of a part of his property or income to the mother-to-be during the last 6 months of the pregnancy so that she may use the items or money to support herself or prepare for the arrival of the child. He must do this regardless of whether his relationship with the mother-to-be continues or ends. He must do this regardless of whether the mother-torbe is willing to have any type of contact with him whatsoever or to submit to his emotional or physical control in any way. The birth may be the event that triggers a legal obligation of support, but it marks the end of the period when voluntary support can preserve the father-to-be’s right to raise his child. He who hesitates truly is lost, and a lawyer who advises otherwise commits malpractice.
Even in the most acrimonious of situations, a father-to-be can fund a bank account in the mother-to-be’s name. He can have property or money delivered to the mother-to-be by a neutral third party. He can — and must — be as creative as necessaiy in providing material assistance to the mother-to-be during the pregnancy and, the law thus assumes, to the child once it is bom. He must not be deterred by the mother-to-be’s lack of romantic interest in him, even by her outright hostility. If she justifiably or *1183unjustifiably wants him to stay away, he must respect her wishes but be sure that his support does not remain equally distant.