A single woman does not need the consent of the father unless he has established paternity and becomes a legal parent. Any legal parent, including a husband of the mother, must consent to the adoption. The only way an adoption can happen without consent of both legal parents is to have “grounds” for the court to terminate the parent’s rights involuntarily. Grounds include, but are not limited to: abandonment for at least 6 months of the child’s life, abuse or neglect of the child. If there are no grounds to terminate and the father does not allow the adoption, the mother will not be able to place the baby for adoption. If the father wants to gain full custody of the baby, the mother needs to be in agreement or he will have to convince the court that she is ‘unfit.’