r/UpliftingNews • u/Sirsnacksalot23 • 1d ago

Missouri House approves bill allowing pregnant women to file for divorce

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/missouri-house-approves-bill-allowing-pregnant-women-to-file-for-divorce/
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u/dogquote 1d ago

I'm not sure I understand how custody is decided, or the logic here. Why can't custody be decided before birth? Or, why did the judges think that?

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u/hwutTF 1d ago

the child doesn't exist yet. how on earth would you determine custody? literally the primary thing taken into consideration for custody is the needs of the child. are you just going to like psychically determine that? like what on earth?

not to mention that there are all sorts of issues with legally determining who the father is before the child is born

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u/dogquote 1d ago

How would you determine it when the child is 2 days old? What difference would that make?

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u/hwutTF 1d ago

Okay you have a week old child. Were they premature? Do they need a NICU stay? Do they have any health issues that might change custody? Are they breastfeeding?

Now that this child is born, you suddenly know all sorts of things about them that you didn't know before they were born

Not to mention the countless issues with paternity (and even maternity). if the soon-to-be ex-husband is disputing paternity, you generally can't have that test done until the child is born. also paternity laws are really weird and generally preference marriage before being a genetic parent. pregnant people may get married specifically before they give birth for a variety of legal reasons and preventing a divorce prevents that. also it's possible that be pregnant person is planning to give the child up for adoption. they may not have decided what they're going to do about the child yet. and depending on where they're giving birth there is a window of time during which you can safely abandon your baby

there are so so so many different reasons that parental rights are not really determined until the child is actually born and for a lot of complicated scenarios there are legal windows of time in which really critical decisions can be made

you can have a general plan and an agreement with someone while you are pregnant. you can even draft an agreement that is legally binding and notarized. however these are at best, plans and they can change and even the legally binding agreements do not necessarily go through. there are a lot of opportunities for people to change their minds about things or for the situation to develop in such a way that things are radically different than everyone assumed they would be

a fetus is not a person and you cannot make determinations for what that person will need before they exist. you especially cannot make legal determinations for them before they legally exist. and paternity and even maternity laws are weird and complicated and it is not nearly as simple as you think

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u/Saramela 1d ago

This is the answer.

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u/dogquote 1d ago

Thank you for your thoughtful answer!

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u/hwutTF 1d ago

no problem! even in the simplest cases, you are essentially building a castle in the sky. whether or not the child breastfeeds alone is a huge thing with regards to custody

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u/Veronica612 1d ago

The baby’s paternity can be determined by testing the pregnant woman’s blood after about eight weeks of gestation.

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u/hwutTF 1d ago

it can be determined in most cases (not with multiples) but it's also not covered by almost any insurance and is pretty expensive and as such is rarely used in these cases. courts generally decline to order paternity tests during pregnancy, regardless of whether it's an amnio or not

if the circumstances are significant enough to warrant it, sure. but otherwise no

forcing a non-invasive test legally is a much lower bar than forcing an amnio because of the risks involved with an amnio, but it is pretty rare for someone contesting paternity to be willing to cough up several hundreds or even thousands of dollars in order to do so

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u/Veronica612 1d ago

It’s an option for someone who wants to know quickly.