To terminate a presumed father, the petitioner must usually show that he abandoned or failed to support the child over a prolonged time (for example, one year), or overtly neglected, endangered, or abused the child.
Putative fathers, however, can be terminated because they either did not sign a putative father registry by a certain strict time after the birth, did not acknowledging paternity within days after the birth or before the adoption petition was filed, or did not consistently and reasonably support the mother financially during and after the birth. With all fathers, being incarcerated or having a felony record is not usually enough, in itself, to support termination of parental rights. If you are in jail, you may still preserve your parental rights by sending mom financial support to the best of your ability, signing putative father registries, filing paternity acknowledgments, and bringing paternity actions. Consult an attorney
III. Other IssuesA. How to calculate the child's due date
Normal pregnancies last 38 weeks (265 days) plus or minus one week. Conception can occur on the day of sexual intercourse or up to few days afterward. If you do not recall the date of intercourse, try to figure it out. If there are multiple possible dates, use the earliest. With a calendar, count and mark 265 days ahead. A week on either side of that later date is your probable window for the birth or due date. Do not rely on mom's word. And do not listen to doctors or nurses who tell you to "count forty weeks after the first day of the mother's last period" or something like that, unless it is all you have to go on (e.g. your sex was regular over a prolonged time.) Do all you can to preserve your parental rights as soon as possible, preferably before the birth. From your angle, there are two stages, early and never.
