- Joined
- Jan 3, 2012
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- Liberal
Except that for the man viability of unborn plays no part in his choices. It makes no difference if the man leaves before 24 weeks or after twenty four weeks as he is not connected to the child. Making the man play by the same rules as a pregnant woman is not fair as the realities of the situation for men is different.
We will not do what has to be done to make the situation more equal, but here is the properly impartial argument.
1) The woman has to have the right to make the decision whether to continue or end the pregnancy simply because it involves risk to her body, and notably the risk of her death is much higher in childbirth than in early abortion. So the guy can't have input on that.
2) However, if the guy does not want to be a legal father, he should have the right to opt out. If she wants to be a legal mother anyway, that should be on her.
3) That said, there are all kinds of caveats.
First, no matter what the woman chooses, it is going to cost her money. Her least costly option is early abortion. Hence, even if the guy wants to opt out, he should have to pay the woman the equivalent of 50% of the cost of the abortion she could get, plus 50% of any costs such as overnight stays, transportation, etc., that are necessary for that option. He should have to pay that much, 50% of the least costly option.
If he wants to be considered the legal father, he should have to pay for 50% of the pregnancy and childbirth/hospitalization costs, including springing for 50% of the maternity clothes she will have to buy because her clothes won't fit her. If she is injured in childbirth or has medical issues while nursing, he should have to go in on the costs for probably six weeks afterwards.
Also, rapists should not have any say. They should not be allowed to assert legal fathers' rights vis-a-vis children who grew from their rape fertilization of a woman. The woman should have the right to prevent him from ever coming near her or the child. I don't even think he should be allowed to pay 50% of the minimal amount to her, but only to the government, which can then provide the sum to her under its name and not the name of the rapist.
But similarly, if a woman rapes a man and gets pregnant by that act, if she wants an abortion, he should absolutely not have to pay anything, and if she wants to carry to term, I really do not think she should be allowed to keep the child she bears unless the man agrees to it.
So there are all sorts of details that would have to be worked out to make the system more equal.
And the reason we are not going to do that is that, if men are given some degree of equal responsibility, they will abuse it and start wanting to have a say over whether or not a woman gets the right to choose abortion. Women know that it is better by far to take all the responsibility and incur all the costs than to let a man start to butt in on that issue.