Parental Rights & Abortion

[TinyPawz]

Article in Elle here

Is this guy having a fucking laugh or what???

On the one hand they had agreed to no more kids, on the other, he could have used contraception to be certain.

Contraception can always fail no matter which party uses it. Men have no rights (and I can't see how they could have) when it comes to terminating or not terminating a pregnancy. My friend's GF recently terminated because she did not want a child - he is still totally devastated. It was his baby too.

Wow - what an aresehole!

Sounds to me like he just wasn't persuasive enough. Resorting to legal actions will never work in cases like this - good old-fashioned reason, argument and emotional blackmail are much more likely to work!

He claims she deceived him. That's nonsense. It was an accident. He almost certainly knew she was on antibiotics, and was as responsible as she was for using alternative protection.

I don't see how men can be given equal reproductive rights. They don't have an equal reproductive system.

A pregnant woman's hormones often emotionally engage her with her foetus from a very early stage, and an abortion will feel like the murder of her child. No woman should be forced to experience that.

So a woman who becomes pregnant must not ever be in a position where a man can force her to terminate her pregnancy, either directly, or by withdrawing financial support.

Get over it men. In this respect you are not equal. If it bothers you, have the snip, or always wear a condom.

Butterbur - I agree with you, in a way.

I recall being told by one woman that she was on the Pill and explicitly stated that there was no need to use condoms - that she "didn't like" them etc.

So when she rang to tell me she was pregnant I was somewhat peeved to learn that she had said what she did simply because she wanted a child with/from me.

I accept that responsibility for her pregnancy remained with me as I had not been raped - nevertheless, her deceit irked somewhat.

Yes, BarmyArmy, it sounds like you were explicitly deceived, and that is wrong.

You could've insisted on wearing a condom, although that would perhaps be perceived as a lack of trust on your part.
I just don't see any way round your problem without passing control of a woman's fertility to a man.

No, I know - it's a rubbish predicament but then more fool us that have unprotected sex outside a long-term relationship!

FWIW, she lost the baby in an unfortunately late miscarriage, which was horrible.

Intend to tell my son that if you have sex then part of the deal is that you do risk your gf becoming pregnant with a baby you will help support and you do risk that she will not be able to terminate, whatever she may have said beforehand. I will tell him that there are things he can do to minimise the risk, but never to completely eliminate it (condoms do split): if he really cannot contemplate the risk, then he should keep his trousers zipped up.

Suppose only way round it is if they get male contraceptive pill sorted - then it would be fair, surely?

FWIW my dp would know full well that if you're on antibiotics the pill doesn't work, i think it shows this man's immaturity and lack of responsibility that he didn't. Obviously she should have known as well, but he shouldn't have just left it to her.