Should unwed biological fathers be forced to pay child support?
74In the case of Row vs. Wade in 1973, the Freedom of Choice Act was established by the judicial system (Pro Choice America). This movement in the Seventies gave women the rights, and freedom, to choose whether to give up their baby to abortion, or to let him/her live. In this Act, there was no mention of the same rights for a father even if he is the child’s biological father. He has no say in whether to give up the child, or keep him/her. Even though the father does not have this right to choose, he is still legally responsible for paying some form of child support. Is it a valid argument that a man should have the same right to take responsibility for a child, as a woman has the right to choose? Our country has been based on a historical fight for the equal rights of women, but have we forgotten about equal rights for all?
Perhaps there is a situation in which both partners decide that they are ready to have a child. In this modern age, many couples don’t need a marriage license to have children. What if the baby is born, and the father leaves. If the baby’s mother was financially dependent on the man in the relationship, then both mother and baby are left in a stressful financial situation. With child support laws, if the father was forced to pay regularly this would insure a slightly better situation for mother and baby, rather than not.
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On the flip side, a man and woman are sexually intimate. Supposedly the woman is not capable of conceiving a child, whether for biological or physical reasons. Perhaps she is on contraceptives that should make her unable to become pregnant. What if this turns out to be false, whether there was a form of contraceptive failure, or there was just a lack of knowledge in the given situation. Whatever the case, there is now a baby growing inside her belly. She decides to keep the baby, but the father is not financially ready to support a child and a family. He insists that the baby is put up for adoption or even an abortion. After the baby is born, he is legally tied to this child, and now he is by law required to financially support him/her, that this father knew he could not support from the start, so now he is stuck in a hard place with a baby he did not want.
One of the purposes of forced child support on biological fathers is so that men can share in the responsibilities of conceiving a child. In the past, a man who got a woman pregnant could leave with no legal ties or obligations. Forcing the biological father to pay child support also forces men to take responsibility for their actions, and not just leave the woman with a baby. Women have the freedom to shed these responsibilities by means of adoption, abortion, etc., but a man cannot be legally free from paying child support. Here lies the problem. Women have the right to say whether they will keep a baby or not. After all, the baby remains inside the female, so it becomes an issue of whether the government should even be able to tell her what she is allowed to do with her body. Although, it takes a man and woman to conceive a child a man has little say in what happens to the baby.
In an article written in the New York Times a man writes about how an unplanned pregnancy occurred with his girlfriend. He had decided that he wanted them to keep the baby, but his girlfriend did not. She ended up having an abortion, and there was nothing this man could do about it. Once again he has no say in what his now ex-girlfriend did, even if he strongly argued against it.
I personally believe that a man and woman involved in conceiving a child should both have a right to say what will happen with that child, unless there are special cases such as rape. There needs to be a signed agreement between both man and woman that declares a joint decision on the future of the child. In the case that it is decided by both parents that the child will be born, but one person does not want anything to do with the child, they will be free from legal responsibilities, but the other needs to be aware that this is what they are agreeing to. If both people decide to keep the baby, then equal amounts of responsibilities should be shared, and in the case of abortion, both parents have to be consenting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/opinion/01conley.html
http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/assets/files/Abortion-Access-to-Abortion-FOCA.pdf
http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/issues/abortion/access-to-abortion/freedom-of-choice-act.html
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Wow thank you so much for your input you have some very good points. I wrote this article for an ethics course that I took and I was curious to see what people's opinions were on the topic. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment on this post. I really appreciate it.
You do a good job of making the point about how the woman gets to decide if she will keep the baby or not while the man has no choice to support a baby he may or may not want or be able to financially afford.
I feel like if a man makes it known he wishes for the mother to abort the pregnancy and she chooses not to for whatever reason then he shouldn't be liable for 18 years of child support nor have any type of visitation rights as a result.
If both agree to keep the baby then both should be equally responsible for the baby. The laws as they are currently are very unfair to the man. The man has no say but an unfair amount of the responsibilities in some cases. If the man can't afford to pay then guess what, they lock him up in jail. How is that fair? Do you think the courts care if your unemployed or maybe even homeless? Nope not at all...
Now he has a felony and will have an even harder time to get a job to pay the child support for a baby he never wanted in the first place
While a women surely shouldn't be left fully responsible for a baby if the man takes off nor should a man be left paying many thousands of dollars to take care of a baby he had no choice about if he didn't want it.
I'm happy to see someone bring light to this injustice in a hub.
Thank you so much for reading, and for your excellent response. I always get kind of worried that people will find this hub to be offensive, but you are right and I think the issue at least needs to be discussed whether people agree or disagree. I was actually a bit bummed out when this topic was discussed in my Ethics course because the discussion was dominated by a couple of women who were set on man bashing the guys in our class(and it did not have a whole lot to do with the actual issue), so we didn't get to discuss the topic as much I would have hoped.
I fully agree with your letter . Men have no rights and will never have any rights it is Canada and dominated by women who make up the rules . It is just like smoking pot they want to legalise it though it gets people high , U cant drink and drive but it will be ok to smoke pot and drive , anyways I dont think a man should have to pay for a baby that he didnt want in the first place . many women will say that the man shouldn't stick his thing in there in th first place but women should'nt open thier foot in the first place . If a man didnt want the baby he shouldn't have to pay and he should have a choice in the abortion or adoption decision .
I am trying to do research on what rights a father would have to a child if the child's mother left the relationship while pregnant, lied about having an abortion and had another man sign the birth certificate. I have talked briefly to a family services counselor who said that it was illegal for the baby's mother to lie to that child's father and say that she had an abortion when she did not. Is this a from of fraud or kidnapping?
Julie Burke 19 months ago
Hi Snowislandhigh, don't forget that the mother is also responsible for child support. If your reluctant dad was the one raising the kid, she would have to do the paying. Abortion is not an option for anyone who considers it to be murder, by the way. You do have a point that the father should have some say on adoption decisions, however.
Remember, the baby is innocent. If mom and dad acted like idiots to bring the baby into existence, they need to pay with money, time, and love.