Q: Can I terminate my son's father's rights and adopt him myself?
My son's father has been convicted on several counts of rape 2, forcible oral sodomy, and manufacturing child pornography. My son is 14 and no longer want's contact with his father. However everything I have read states I have to have a husband to do a step-parent adoption. Is there really no way around this? Considering I have raised him on my own with little to no financial support from his father.
A: There has to be someone to take the place of the parent being terminated. The only way to terminate rights is through an adoption or when DHS takes over to terminate. So in short, until you have been married for a year and have a step-parent adoption he stays on the books as father.
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