Legal Question in Family Law in California

Her rights would be terminated all at the same time as the adoption. Once you two adopt the child, her responsibilities would also end. Legally it will be as if the child was born to you. All she will have to do is sign some papers consenting to the adoption. Her role can be very minimal. In fact, if you have things arranged right ahead of time, you could take the baby home from the hospital. She wouldn't even have to see the child if she didn't want to. Adoption is not TOO hard to do in a private placement situation like yours. In fact my ex and I adopted our son in a private placement situation. It does, however, require completing a number of steps, so you need to get to work on it right away. The first thing you need to do is find an adoption agency to work with you for the home study. They can also help you with all the other paperwork and things you will need to do. The court will require a certified home study, and a California Dept. of Justice fingerprint and background check. Those can take a little time, so you should get those moving right away, and a licensed adoption agency is the place to go for them.

Mr. McCormick is correct, her rights are terminated and the adoption occurs at the same time. Until the adoption is final, both parents remain financially responsible. That means that if she has a change of mind (I am assuming it is still early in the pregnancy because she is talking about abortion), you could be dealing with having support and custody and visitation issues that would have to be resolved by the Courts. Whatever agreement you have, she can back out at any time until the baby is born (and for a period after the baby is born), so I think it is premature to already plan on him having the baby and collecting welfare.