I am disgusted with the lack of father's rights in our country. My husband recently filed for visitation rights in Miami, Fl in hopes to have a relationship with his 4 year old daughter. He was never married to the mother and hasn't seen his daughter since she was a year old because we live out of state and the child's mother is determined to keep her away out of spite. I'm positive that he is not the only non-custodial parent who has been living this nightmare. My husband loves his daughter dearly and pays child support for her as well, but thanks to the lack of father's rights, she has no clue who he is. If you're wondering what happened with the visitation case, all odds were against him including lack of funds for an attorney or the ability to fly back and forth to Miami without the risk of losing his job again (he was laid off 2 years ago when he appeared for child support court), so he filed a voluntary dismissal for visitation. If our government would have allowed him to file his visitation petition in the state where he resides, this wouldn't have become a major out of state issue. Our country is full of activists all over the place who fight for women rights, rights for children & the elderly, animals etc who ALL have more rights than a law-abiding non-custodial parent, usually a father. So when will someone stand up for father's to have rights? The best solution to this problem is for the government to pass a law that automatically establishes visitation rights/time sharing schedules for non-custodial parents simultaneously with child support for custodial parents in ALL 50 states, rendering parental alienation illegal. If by chance, the noncustodial parent becomes forced to petition the court for visitation rights because the custodial parent prevents visitation, a warrant should be issued for the custodial parent's arrest. Warrants are frequently issued for a parent who has to pay child support, so it should become a double standard. Our courts are quick to suspend a noncustodial parent's driver's license for falling behind on child support, so there should be a law passed to limit the driving privileges of a custodial parent who denies a father access to his child. Denial of access is a major problem, even with court orders in place. According to the US Dept. of Health & Human Services study, "Survey of Absent Parents" over 60% of mothers regularly violates the access rights of fathers, cutting off all contact between the children and their fathers within five years. Unlike child support, mothers are not jailed, even with multiple Contempt of Court ruling against them for violating the father's court ordered visitation rights. Also, why not conduct evaluations up front to see who TRULY has the child's best interest at heart? By assuming the mother is the better choice and determining that she should be awarded automatic sole custody to a child born out of wedlock is unconstitutional. Maybe the government should consider providing court appointed attorneys to fathers who can't afford one instead of saving the attorneys for the murderers and felons of the world.I'm positive that changing that alone will cut down on the number of custodial parents who use these innocent children as ransom, i.e, child support. Until then, every woman in America has the right to block father's from EVER knowing their children.Your signatures combined could possibly lead to someone finally addressing this worldwide epidemic. Feel free to email this link to all you know so we can get as many signatures as possible. Thanks in advance.

Sincerely
A Concerned Mother


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