>Between the unfairness to make an adult pay for a child who isn't theirs and the unfairness to throw an innocent child into financial distress, protecting the child takes priority everywhere I know of.

I wonder how would you react if you received a notification that half your paycheck will be henceforth withheld to support some random kid.

this comparison is not entirely fair, because in this scenario, the kid's mother did not deliver a grievous, unforgivable insult to you - which is the case with those poor souls who got scammed into paying child support for some whore's bastard whelp.

the state doesn't give a flying fuck about the child's 'financial distress'. the state simply doesn't want to support it.