Parents' rights movement

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The Parents' rights movement is a civil rights movement whose members are primarily interested in issues affecting fathers, mothers and children related to family law, including child custody.

Parents' rights advocates claim that many parents' parental rights are unnecessarily terminated, and that children are separated from fathers and mothers and adopted through the actions of family courts and government social service agencies seeking to meet their own targets, rather than looking at the merits of each case.[1] Fathers' rights activists protest the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS), stating that its employees take children away from their parents without cause[2] adding that these employees, who they complain have improperly received immunity from the Massachusetts Supreme Court,[3] threaten mothers with the loss of their children to coerce them into divorcing their husbands[4] and attending "support groups", which members of the fathers rights' movement state, serves the dual purpose of allowing the associates of the DSS employees to receive additional government funding for running the "support groups", and allowing the DSS employees to gain information used to take children away from their parents. Members of the fathers’ rights movement add with criticism of the vested interests and abuse of power involved, taking children away from parents is a source of additional funding for the Massachusetts DSS from the U.S. federal government (Title IV-E of the Social Security Act).[5]

In June 2007, UK parents' rights advocates criticized the local court, claiming that it was treating children as adoptable commodities, that decisions were made on lack of evidence and perjury, and that courtroom secrecy was harming families and children.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Unwarranted Adoptions. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-06-05.
  2. ^ Hession, Gregory (2003-01-06). DSS Dirty Tricks Series. MassOutrage.Com. Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
  3. ^ Baskerville, Stephen (2004-06-06). MASSACHUSETTS' FAMILY 'JUSTICE'. NewsWithViews.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.
  4. ^ Baskerville, Stephen (Summer 2003). Divorce as Revolution. The Fatherhood Coalition, also Salisbury Review vol. 21 no. 4. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
  5. ^ Moore, Nev (2003-07-29). Inside A 'Batterers Program' for 'Abused' Women. The Fatherhood Coalition. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  6. ^ Parents' Rights Advocates Criticize Local Court. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
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