This article from the New York Times tells the story of a man in New York whose daughter was removed from his care and placed into foster care due child abuse committed by his daughter's mother. The father, a man named Ping, lived with his daughter Amanda and her mother for the first five years of Amanda's life. "But when child welfare officials found that Amanda’s mother had inflicted excessive corporal punishment on her in 2013, they removed the girl from the home," says the article. "Even though court records show that Ping had never committed abuse and was not present when it took place, a judge later decided that he would lose his daughter, too. Ping could not have custody or any say in her life anymore." The decision was made due to a New York State law that made Ping "less of a father" in the eyes of the court because he was not married to Amanda's mother when she was born.
Ping's lawyers are working to appeal the decision, hoping that it will serve as "a test case that changes how the decades-old law treats unwed fathers." There are some who support the law, saying that it "helps children who have been languishing in foster care to get a permanent home sooner by preventing unmarried fathers who do not support their children from using the courts to delay or stop an adoption."
However, in regards to the part of the law that requires unwed fathers to the government agency that has taken their child in order to prove parenthood, Ping says he was never told he owed this money and did not receive a bill, a claim echoed by other lawyers, according to the article. "In New York, lawyers for fathers said that making payments to foster care agencies was not even possible. The agencies do not try to collect the money, they said, and fathers do not know where or to whom to send it." A review of Family Court decisions and interviews with foster care lawyers indicates that this law is routinely cited in Family Court decisions.