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The Los Angeles Daily Journal
Shouldn't Men Have a Choice, Too?
The Los Angeles Daily
Journal and the San
Francisco Daily Journal, U.S., by Glenn Sacks,
February 18, 2002,
Jennifer was crushed when she was told that a baby was on the
way. She wants to have children, but the right way--after she
has found the right person and is married. But in Jennifer's
country, she has no choice. "Jenn" cannot give the child up
for adoption, and she cannot terminate the pregnancy. It is
her burden to bear, for the next two decades, like it or not.
What country is it which compels a person to have a child they
don't want? Afghanistan? Saudi Arabia?
No, it's the United States--not for Jenn, but for Ken.
Ken Johnson, a 10 year veteran of the Seattle Fire Department,
wanted to be a father, but with the right woman, and at the
right time. Three years ago he and his wife separated after
six years of marriage, and each began to date. During this
time, according to court documents filed in Snohomish County,
Washington, Ken had a brief affair with "Cathy," which
resulted in a pregnancy. Ken's legal complaint alleges that he
begged Cathy to put the child up for adoption or to terminate
the pregnancy, but Cathy refused. Now Ken and his wife, who
reconciled two and a half years ago, can't start a family of
their own because almost half of Ken's net income from the
Seattle Fire Department goes to support the child he didn't
want to have. He says:
"People tell me that Cathy should have the choice whether to
keep the child or not because it's her body so it's her
choice. I agree. But what about my body? I make my living
rushing into burning buildings. I put my life and my safety on
the line every time I go to work, and now I'm on the hook for
18 years. With the child support demands on me, there's no way
I'll ever be able to quit. What about my choice?"
Johnson is part of a growing movement of men who bristle at
being "coerced fathers," and who have enlisted in a "Choice
for Men" movement whose goals are every bit as legitimate as
the goals of the women's reproductive rights movement. They
note that one million American women legally walk away from
motherhood every year by either adoption, abortion, or
abandonment, and demand that men, like women, be given
reproductive options. They point out that, unlike women, men
have no reliable contraception available to them, since the
failure rate of condoms is substantial, and vasectomies are
generally only worthwhile for older men who have already
married and had children. And they emphasize that, with long
backlogs of stable, two-parent families looking for babies to
adopt, there is no reason for any child born out of wedlock to
a "coerced father" to be without a good home.
The Choice for Men movement seeks to give "coerced fathers"
the right to relinquish their parental rights and
responsibilities within a month of learning of a pregnancy,
just as mothers do when they choose to give their children up
for adoption. These men would be obligated to provide
legitimate financial compensation to cover natal medical
expenses, the mother's loss of income during pregnancy, etc.
The right would only apply to pregnancies which occurred
outside of marriage.
Some of those who fought for women's reproductive choices
agree with choice for men. Karen DeCrow, former president of
the National Organization for Women, writes:
"If a woman makes a unilateral decision to bring a pregnancy
to term, and the biological father does not, and cannot, share
in this decision, he should not be liable for 21 years of
support ... autonomous women making independent decisions
about their lives should not expect men to finance their
choice."
To date, courts have refused to consider fathers' reproductive
rights even in the most extreme cases, including: when child
support is demanded from men who were as young as 12 when they
were statutorily raped by older women; when women have taken
the semen from a used condom and inserted it in themselves,
including from condoms used only in oral sex; and when women
concealed the pregnancy from the man (denying him the right to
be a father) and then sued for back and current child support
eight or ten years later.
"It doesn't make sense to me," Ken's wife Patti says. "The
courts force my husband and I to support a child he never
agreed to, but make it financially impossible for him to have
a child with the woman he loves and married."
Copyright
2001 - 2004. Glenn Sacks
All Rights Reserved.
email:
glenn@glennsacks.com
www.glennsacks.com
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Youth Parliament Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories
The Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories supports the
right and responsibility of our youth to be involved in our democracy.
A great example for all provincial, territorial legislative
assemblies and the Parliament of Canada
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