What are you thoughts on this idea for reproductive rights?

Question

Suppose a woman gets pregnant, and decides that she does not want the baby but the father does. Would you support the idea of a binding legal document that the father could sign, freeing the mother from all responsibility?

I suppose this scenario already exists via adoption, but in this scenario, the unborn child already has a parent waiting while he/she is in the womb. What are thoughts? Thanks.

Answer 1

As long as the mother agrees then fine, but if she doesnt then its a moot point.

Answer 2

Why is this such an issue with some people on this site? The reality is most the time it is the reverse situation: the woman wants to keep the pregnancy and the man wants her to abort. As a matter of fact the number one cause of death for pregnant women is murder at the hands of the man who impregnated her. The situation you outline is exceedingly rare. And to answer your question, I think it is absolutely unacceptable for a woman to be forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy. But also it would be impossible to enforce such a law. If a woman was dead set on aborting, all she would have to do is not tell the man who impregnated her that she is pregnant.

Answer 3

I think it's a great idea, but it should never be forced upon a woman if she's opting for an abortion.

Edit:  h**l no!

Answer 4

I have no problem with that just as long as the father is willing to carry the child himself.  Only then would there be anything to "negotiate".

Answer 5

It's great if she's willing to undergo the pregnancy under those circumstances.

However, if she's not willing to continue the pregnancy, he is out of luck, I'm afraid.

Edit: No. Forcing a woman to endure a pregnancy she doesn't want would never, EVER pass Constitutional muster, not even with a Conservative SCOTUS, so even discussing it in rhetorical terms is a waste of intellectual energy.

Pregnancy takes an enormous toll on your body and your psyche even when you want a child. To go through it for an unwanted child would be tantamount to torture, and forcing anyone to go through it would be, in fact, torture by its classic definition.

Answer 6

Both parents should be forced to deal with the accidental pregnancy, no abortions - or both should be allowed to opt out.

Equal rights is what feminism is all about.

Right?

Answer 7

If the woman is willing to carry the fetus to term for the father's sake, I think this might work out beautifully. It's no different than a man who doesn't want to pay child support. If she isn't, though, the man can't do much about it; since women are the only ones who can get pregnant, they'll have to accept certain inequities in reproductive rights.

Answer 8

No, that won't work... for all the reasons already given.

But I would entertain the thought of having her undergo a transfer of the fetus to an artificial womb or surrogate - especially  if she was going to have a medical procedure (abortion) anyway.

Answer 9

Yes, absolutely and she should be forced to carry the pregnancy  to term.

Answer 10

That's a great idea but only if she was willing to do that, if not then, he will  just  have to accept it, and find another women to give him a child.

No women should be forced to go through  a pregnancy,but if the women wanted to that, then that would be ok.

Answer 11

Great idea.  As far as pregnancy being "torture", give me a break.  We're not talking about a 12 year old rape victim.  A woman shouldn't be forced to endure pregnancy?  How about a baby being forced out of the womb, in pieces?

Answer 12

no, you can't force a woman to have a baby if she doesn't want to. pregnancy is not all peaches and cream. how can you FORCE someone to go through something they could possibly die from? it would change her forever.

no!

Blah: men opt out all the time. my dad resisted paying any kind of support to my mother and she had to go on assistance for a bit because of it. nothing ever happened to him for it and  he was still allowed to visit me, even though he rarely did.

Answer 13

I don't think the mother should be forced to carry the child to term if she doesn't want to - but I don't think the father should be forced to support a child he feels he is not ready for either.

As long as women can opt out of parenthood men should be able to.

I do find it interesting that people think 9 months of pregnancy is worse on your body than being forced to work 2 jobs for 18 years.  Being forced to work is slavery - regardless of gender.

Answer 14

Women still need to have the choice. Pregnancy is not equal to working for a living and to support a family. Pregnancy can be seriously debilitating. Additionally, women who carry their children to term often end up, naturally, wanting to keep them. You invest so much in creating the child and then to give it up. That can destroy a woman even more than an abortion.

I do, however, agree that the status quo isn't working. Men have too little control over their fertility. We need male birth control pills, shots, whatever. The responsibility for birth control, pregnancy and abortion fall on the woman and for a long time men were content with this arrangement. Now that the state has recognized its interest in making sure dads pay (so the state doesn't have to) many men find themselves in an uncomfortable situation. If both males and females have access to highly effective and easy to use birth control we will see the unplanned pregnancy rate drop substantially.

I know there are condoms that men can use, but condoms aren't the most effective method and they do interfere with pleasure in many cases. They are also not used as often by people in long term relationships, so it's not uncommon for a steady couple to have an oops. We need better tools that men can use to make sure there is no oops on their part. This also eliminates the chance that a woman might lie about being on bc to entrap the man.

In the ideal world all childbearing decisions and responsibilities would be equally shared between partners, but so far we haven't figured out how to allow men to carry pregnancies, and society still expects more of mothers than of fathers. Women can and often do assume financial responsibility, in addition to the physical responsibility for their children. To pretend that only men work to support children ignores the facts that most women do work to support their children and then they work at home for free to take care of them. At least the guy paying child support is free to do whatever he wants after work, including go to college and get a higher paying job. He's not stuck for years working 24 hour shifts with no hope for advancement. That's a side not often recognized. We get so caught up in the money aspect that we forget to recognize the fact that women almost always bear the brunt of responsibility for children. If men really want to take this on, more power to them, and thank you, sincerely, thank you. I just think that more often men want to avoid paying money than they really want to actually care for and nurture their children.

This is changing and I want to acknowledge and encourage that. Everyone benefits when dads really care. I wish my dad cared. At least my fiance is the kind of guy who gets up in the middle of the night to care for our sick puppy, and he takes off work to take her to the vet. I know what kind of father he will be and that's part of why I love and honor him every day. I commend the men out there who do care and actually allow themselves to feel and express the full range of human emotion. If we can see through our anger and resentment enough, we women will decide to support and recognize the efforts of many, many men to be better dads and better human beings.