When a child is born "out of wedlock," she has only one legal parent:  her mother.  The biological father has an automatic obligation to pay child support for the child, but has no legal right to custody or visitation because he is not considered a legal parent.  Nor can the child inherit from the biological father, again because he is not a legal parent.

When the child is born, the biological parents can agree to place the father's name on the birth certificate.  The hospital will provide the biological parents with an acknowledgment form to declare paternity of the child.  In addition, the acknowledgment form allows the biological father to acknowledge "legitimacy" of the child, and become the child's legal parent.

If the biological mother and father do not sign the paternity &/or legitimation acknowledgments, the mother may only force the father to pay child support by filing a lawsuit to determine the paternity of the child.  Once paternity is established, the court will order the father to pay child support.  On the other side, if the biological father wants to obtain visitation with the child, he must file a petition to legitimate the child, in order to obtain parental rights over the child, including visitation rights.  Moreover, with an order of legitimacy, the child can inherit from the father, and can obtain social security and other benefits from him.