Social stigma causes the damage. None of that is valid or real from a high level abstractive perspective, but gaining such a perspective is a product of middle age. Most social stigma is born from ignorance, backwardness, and dogma. These are also protection mechanisms inherent to youth.

A bit of unsolicited advice, child services is no one’s friend. The agents are paid on commission. The system is not balanced or fair. If you have custody, you can push to settle and set amounts lower. If you do not stay involved or become indifferent towards the child’s father, child services will likely destroy his life. The suicide rate is not well tracked but is generally known to be much higher. The entire system is built around a bygone era when anyone could simply show up and get a well paid factory job with a sufficient income to own a home and live a life as a primary breadwinner with a stay at home partner. No one alive today without inherited wealth can earn an income to survive with a 30%-40% margin removed. At a young age, such an extreme expense prevents a person from ever getting established on a solid career path. It cuts off many potential career paths that lack stability. Becoming unemployed will ruin a person dealing with child services. Most of the best paying jobs are unstable. Child Services is incentivised to exploit this in a way that ruins lives. You may have the power to change this if you care and can see the big picture.