The Collegian

Issue date: 4/4/06 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Ken Fung

Claiming that women have more options than men do in the event of an unintended pregnancy, men's rights activists are mounting a long shot legal campaign aimed at giving them the chance to opt out of financial responsibility for raising a child.

The National Center for Men has prepared a lawsuit-nicknamed Roe v. Wade for Men-to be filed in the U.S. District Court in Michigan on behalf of a 25-year-old computer programmer. The plaintiff was ordered to pay child support for his ex-girlfriend's daughter. The suit addresses the issue of male reproductive rights, contending the lack of these rights violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause which says, "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Men should not have to pay child support if they do not want to. A man should have equal rights just as the expected mother does when it comes to unwanted pregnancy. When an unwanted pregnancy occurs the man is usually slapped with the child support payments to help raise that child until the age of 18. A man has every right to relinquish his rights as a father, especially if he was tricked into the pregnancy, as claimed by the man in question. In the particular case under scrutiny, the ex-girlfriend told her boyfriend that she could not in fact get pregnant due to a physical ailment that prevents her from conceiving a child. The father accepted her word and nine months later she gave birth, much to this dismay of the unaware, unwanting father.

The Roe vs. Wade law obviously caters to expected mothers and under this law they have every right to do what they please with their child. A mother has the right to terminate the pregnancy, put the baby up for adoption, keep the baby and drop the father, or keep the child and raise it with her boyfriend/husband as a family.

The law does not take into account the father's rights or objections to the pregnancy.

A man is entitled to voice his opinion if he wants the mother to terminate the pregnancy, put the baby up for adoption, or keep the child and raise it as a family.

If the male's voice - the father's voice - is not heard, he should not have to pay child support. Should we not as a society update the law of having a man's point of view be considered?

Last time I checked there were two sides to every issue. Let the men have choice as well.

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