Hello. My 17 year old friend, (a boy), just told me that his ex-girlfriend is pregnant. She is 17 in high school. He does not even have a GED yet. He wants to go to school and cannot handle the responsibilities of a child. Does he have to pay child support? He is not positive that he is the father, but cannot afford the costs of a paternity test. He wants to give up the child for adoption but the girl wants to keep the baby. Thank you for your advise.

First, if he is found to be the father, then he will have to pay support. Second, the court will usually pay for the test if he denies paternity. Third, he has no say in putting the child up for adoption if she doesn't want to.

So what happens now, is he waits for the child to be born. If she asks for him to sign the birth certificate he refuses. She then takes him to court for support and he demands a paternity test.

If the child is his, he will have to pay support and he should try to be a part of the child's life. If not, then he goes his own way.

If he wasn't ready to be a father, then he should have kept it in his pants.