Custody & Kidnapping

Although I cannot speak to your state’s laws in particular, often, termination of parental rights is a case that is brought by the state when a child is in foster care and the parent has neglected/abused the child and perhaps not followed the steps put forth by the state to gain the child back. I cannot say for sure whether or not a parent can bring a court action to try to terminate another parent’s rights - hopefully a lawyer can tell you if this is a possibility in your state.

One thing you may want to consider is that if a parent’s rights are terminated, that might mean that the parent no longer has to pay any child support or provide health insurance, etc. Also, when one parent files a petition to terminate parental rights, sometimes the uninvolved parent suddenly decides to get more involved in the children’s lives when they think that they will be losing their rights forever. It could even spark a petition for custody or visitation by the uninvolved parent. You may want to get advice from a lawyer as to whether or not this is the best plan of action in your situation or not.

I am not specifically familiar with STATE’s laws on termination of parental rights but after doing some research, here is a link that I found to a US government website that explains the basis to terminate one’s rights in each state.