Why Do Unmarried Mothers Receive Responsibility?

Mothers automatically acquire responsibility regardless of their marital status. They physical nurture the child during pregnancy and bring the child into the world therefore it is said that even if a mother isn’t married at the time of conception they ‘are assuming an active parenting role’ Debate arises in relation to mothers when considering cases where mothers who abuse substances such as drugs and/or alcohol during pregnancy which then leads to damage to the foetus. These mothers will still be awarded parental responsibility automatically and will only lose this if the child is adopted. Unmarried fathers aren’t awarded the same rights to even the mothers in these cases even though they may act in the best interests of the child. Therefore it can be argued that all unmarried fathers should be awarded parental responsibility because as
Firstly, concern arises in situations where the safety of the mother and child would be put at risk if the unmarried father was to gain automatic rights. This can often be the case in situations where there are issues of domestic violence, casual sexual relations and in extreme cases rape. In reality it is fair to state that not all children are born into loving and safe families. Unfortunately, domestic violence will affect ‘one in four women during their lifetime, and on average in the UK, two women will be killed by a current or former partner’. It can be argued to be unfair to allow these types of men to be allowed automatic parental