Sole Morality

Abortion Rights...for Men?

Up first is a question about abortion that I came across back in March. For the purpose of this post, let's temporarily suspend the argument about whether abortion is right or wrong generally.

The question at hand has to do with what rights a man has when it comes to a decision to abort a baby. The easiest way to explain the issue is with a hypothetical case: John and Jane are sexually active together. She becomes pregnant and the two of them disagree about what to do.

Scenario A
Jane decides she wants to keep the child despite John insisting that she have an abortion. She has the child and then sues John for child support, which he is then obligated to pay. In today's society, this is the current norm for paternity issues, with the father being required to pay child support regardless of whether he wanted her to keep the baby or not. I haven't heard too many objections to this set up. After all, the baby is half his and he should have to shoulder some responsibility whether he likes it or not.

Scenario B
Jane decides she wants to have an abortion. John is adamantly opposed to her aborting the baby and wants to take responsibility for the baby that is half his. Jane simply can go ahead with the abortion despite John's protests.

So, where is the equal, shared responsibility of the father for the child in Scenario B? How is it that in Scenario A, Jane's decision to have the baby trumps John's desire to not have to shoulder parental responsibilities (or at least child support obligations) but when the situation is reversed, she still trumps him?

I believe that it is ethically wrong to have this double standard. Can you honestly agree that Jane can dictate whether John's child lives or dies but John can't dictate whether Jane's child lives or dies? Is the child equally theirs or not?

If the child is equally theirs, then the man should have just as much say in the fate of the pregnancy as the woman. If it is not equally theirs and the woman has more say than the man, then paternal obligation laws need to be reformed to reflect that and hold the man less (or not) financially or otherwise responsible for a child that he didn't want but that the woman refused to abort.

Agree? Disagree? I'd love to hear why.