Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Standing Up For The Right To Choose...

From Chron.com

Men's Rights Group Eyes Child Support Stay...

NEW YORK — Contending that women have more options than they do in the event of an unintended pregnancy, men's rights activists are mounting a long shot legal campaign aimed at giving them the chance to opt out of financial responsibility for raising a child.

The National Center for Men has prepared a lawsuit _ nicknamed Roe v. Wade for Men _ to be filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Michigan on behalf of a 25-year-old computer programmer ordered to pay child support for his ex-girlfriend's daughter. The suit addresses the issue of male reproductive rights, contending that lack of such rights violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.

The gist of the argument: If a pregnant woman can choose among abortion, adoption or raising a child, a man involved in an unintended pregnancy should have the choice of declining the financial responsibilities of fatherhood. The activists involved hope to spark discussion even if they lose.

Now. How do you like that?

I have said for a long time that whether you believe in Abortion or not, it is unfair that a pregnant woman who does not want to have a child can abort that child while the father screams and pounds on the door of the clinic, and he is powerless to stop it, but a man who does not want to have a child, who finds himself responsible for a pregnancy, has to take the responsibility for that child for the next eighteen years.

When you leave the humanity of the fetus out of the argument, then this lawsuit does not go far enough.

They should be suing for the right for the father to demand that the woman terminate the pregnancy.

If you believe that a woman has a right to choose what she does with her body, then why shouldn't a man have that same right? If he chooses not to drag his body out of bed every morning and work all day to support a child that he does not want, then shouldn't he have that right?

Or does a woman's right to kill her unborn baby trump all rights of everyone else involved?

Are we really serious about people having the right to choose, or not?

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