Parents' rights movement

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. [cite web
title =Unwarranted Adoptions
publisher =BBC
date =
url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3662494.stm
accessdate=2007-06-05 ] Fathers' rights activists protest the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS), stating that its employees take children away from their parents without cause [cite web
last =Hession
first =Gregory
authorlink =
title =DSS Dirty Tricks Series
publisher =MassOutrage.Com
date =2003-01-06
url =http://www.massoutrage.com/dssdirtytricks.htm
accessdate=2007-04-27 ] adding that these employees, who they complain have improperly received immunity from the Massachusetts Supreme Court, [cite web
last =Baskerville
first =Stephen
authorlink =
title =MASSACHUSETTS' FAMILY 'JUSTICE'
publisher =NewsWithViews.com
date =2004-06-06
url =http://www.newswithviews.com/Baskerville/stephen1.htm
accessdate=2007-05-07 ] threaten mothers with the loss of their children to coerce them into divorcing their husbandscite web
last=Baskerville
first=Stephen
authorlink =
title=Divorce as Revolution
publisher=The Fatherhood Coalition, also Salisbury Review vol. 21 no. 4
date=Summer 2003
url =http://www.fatherhoodcoalition.org/cpf/newreadings/2003/Divorce_as_Revolution_SBsum03.htm
accessdate =2007-03-22 ] 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). [cite web
last =Moore
first =Nev
authorlink =
title =Inside A 'Batterers Program' for 'Abused' Women
publisher =The Fatherhood Coalition
date =2003-07-29
url =http://www.fatherhoodcoalition.org/cpf/newreadings/2003/NevIndepHouse0307.htm
accessdate=2007-04-17 ]

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. [cite web
title =Parents' Rights Advocates Criticize Local Court
publisher =BBC
date =
url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/regions/west_yorkshire/video/98000/nb/98414_16x9_nb.ram
accessdate=2007-06-06 ]

References