Unmarried Fathers Unlike married fathers, a father who is not married to the child's mother has to take steps to establish his parental rights. An unmarried father does not automatically have his name listed on the child's birth certificate or hold custody and visitation rights. Before he can ask a South Carolina court for custody rights, he must first establish that he is the child's legal father. This is not right if a man is willing to take care of a child no questions asked then this should not even matter. I can’t think of any man that would take care of a child for X amount of years and then say that he doesn’t think that the child is theirs. There should be a form at the birth of the child that the father and mother signs for paternity of the child. If the man is the father then he should have joint legal custody of the child no questions asked. If a women is to put a man on child support they should prove that the father is not taking care of the child not just go and say he is not taking care of the child I want money. I pay $375.00 a month for my son and I can only come see him when the mother says it is ok. That is not fair that I cannot get my son and take him to my home and spend quality father time with him. I don’t want to be limited that's the worse feeling in the world to know that he wants me and I want him and I cannot do anything but spend money that I don’t have and get into debt because the mother has a personal grudge. If I can get at least 100,000 people to help change the law in South Carolina I would really appreciate it because this needs to stop.