DEAR ABBY: I have a problem and need your advice. I am a 23-year-old man who went out with an older woman two summers ago. We had a few fun flings, and next thing I know, she calls to tell me she's pregnant! After I told her I would pay for the abortion, she totally shocked me by telling me she planned to keep the baby and raise it herself. I then went back to college, and after the baby was born, she sued me for child support.
Now I have to pay child support for a child I did not want, to be raised by a woman I do not love. I am so angry, I can't see straight. My life has been turned upside down by this woman. Some of her friends told me that she deliberately tricked me.
Abby, if I hire a lawyer and can prove all this, will I be off the hook for child support? I hate to think I will be paying child support for 21 years! I am so full of rage at the opposite sex I doubt if I will ever trust a woman again.
Also, my parents are pushing me to have visitation rights, but I want nothing to do with this woman OR her baby. I need to know what my rights are. Please give me your advice before I go crazy. -- JOE (NOT MY REAL NAME)
DEAR "JOE": If ever a man needed legal advice, that man is you, so I advise you to lose no time in engaging a lawyer, and prepare to take responsibility for the child you fathered.