Abortions for Men!

There is a court case in Michigan at the moment that is getting a lot of press around the world. ( Link to BBC article) It is a case where a man is suing not to be liable for child support because he feels that the law isnt fair. He feels that because women have the right to abortion and thus reproductive freedom, he also should have the same right. He believes that he should be able to choose not to be a father.

Here is my view on the subject.

1) I believe that both women and men should have rights to choose to be parents or to not be parents. There are more options available to women but there are plenty of options available to men too. I would strongly encourage men who do not wish to be parents to always use condoms and spermacidal foam or to have a vasectomy. The best time to choose not to be a parent is before there is a pregnancy.

2) The reason abortion is a right for women has more to do with having a right to make medical decisions about their own bodies than it does with their right to reproductive freedom. Once a woman is pregnant, it is her choice to continue to the pregnancy or not because it is her body. Men should not be able to compel women to continue pregnancies they dont want nor should they be able to compel women to discontinue pregnancies they do want. I also believe that men should be allowed to terminate any pregnancies that they have because men also have a right to do what they would like with their own bodies.

3) Once the child is born, I think that men and women should have equal rights and responsibilities regarding children they have brought into the world. I think that after birth if both parents decide that they cant handle the responsibility, they should be allowed to consider the option of adoption. However, if one parent does not want to give up their parental rights they shouldn't have to and the other parent should be liable for financial support. As far as I know, this is how things are.

Matt Dubay, the man bringing this case to court, seems to feel that this is unfair because during one stage in the process (pregnancy), women get more say than men. I suspect that he is one of those men who believes that men dont actually raise children so he is forgetting that if a woman gives birth to a child and then wants to put it up for adoption but the father of the child would rather raise the child, she will be held liable for child support. The point is that the law is already fair and what he is asking for is privilege and not fairness.