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Women have a choice if and when they become parents, writes Catherine Deveny. Why should men not be given the same opportunity?

Catherine shares her thoughts of ABC news saying, “I support men being able to opt out of fatherhood early in a pregnancy via what is known as a financial abortion.”

“I believe a woman should not be forced to become a mother any more than a man should be forced to become a father. If a man has not said, “I want to have a child with you now-ish”, it is fair to assume he doesn’t, and therefore should be able to legally withdraw from becoming a parent. ”

Catherine writes, “A financial abortion (also known as a paper abortion or a statutory abort) would essentially enable men to cut all financial and emotional ties with a child in the early stages of pregnancy.

This means he would opt out of all rights, privileges and responsibilities of parenthood in a binding and not reversible decision.”

Mel Feit, director of the National Centre for Men in the US, said, “Women now have control of their lives after an unplanned conception but men are routinely forced to give up control, forced to be financially responsible for choices only women are permitted to make, forced to relinquish reproductive choice.”

And yet there are currently no laws anywhere in the world that enshrine a man’s right to opt out of parenthood, states Catherine.

In Australia, the biological father of a child is legally required to pay child support; he also has legal rights alongside social expectations.

Does the good old argument “it takes two to tango” stand? What do you think?

Read Catherine’s full article here.

Sweden’s fight for a father’s right to abort

We shared earlier this year that Sweden’s Liberal Party proposed allowing expectant fathers to ‘legally abort’ their unborn babies right up until the 18th week of pregnancy — the cut off time for actual, physical abortions in the country.

“Men should have an equal right to opt out of parenting and choose whether or not to become a parent,” Marcus Nilsen, chairman of the party’s youth wing West (LUF) told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

“There are endless examples of men who can’t even say whether they want to be involved in parenthood or how involved they want to be. It is important that men remain honest with themselves and their intentions.” Aftonbladet newspaper.

The male abortion would be a legal decision, allowing unwilling fathers to relinquish all parental rights and responsibilities for their unborn child. The father would have no future rights to see his child, but would be relieved of all financial responsibility.

The proposal sparked debate in Sweden, but was firmly rejected by the Liberal party’s central office.

The youth wing of the Liberal Party claim that male abortion is a feminist policy. They believe it will provide equality for the sexes, and allow expectant mothers to know whether their baby’s father is prepared to support the child.

Share your comments below.

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  • to force someone to abort a child they want? No way
    to stop an abortion of a child he wants to raise? Yes
    People can always sign away their parental rights

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  • If men don’t want children they should make sure the woman is on the pill & use a condom or abstain from sex until they want children. This seems tlikeo me that men are just trying to get out of being financially responsible for their own actions

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  • Interesting concept, good luck getting it legislated. Too many grey areas…..
    how about people take responsibility before the woman falls pregnant.

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  • This is something a couple should be thinking about before they’re intimate with each other, so I do think a pregnancy is both their responsibility and you shouldn’t be running from it.

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  • Maybe find a better name for it but, yeah why not.
    Men shouldn’t be forced to be stuck with some woman who got pregnant on them.
    But at the same time it is your responsibility to wear condoms and to check the woman is on birth control. If you have sex without taking precautions against sti’s or pregnancy then its your own damn fault

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  • Even if you have a tubal litigation and it is done with clips (now common procedure – not cut & tied – it isn’t foolproof either. The clips can come open and ultimately pregnancy can still occur.

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  • Any time you engage in sexual intercourse, regardless of whether contraception is used or not, you run the risk of a pregnancy. Contraception sometimes fails. If you want to have sex, you need to accept the responsibility if a pregnancy is the result. If you bring in a law like this, then you might as well bring in a legally binding contract for men to sign stating if sex results in an accidental pregnancy, then you are both financially responsible.

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  • Very difficult to have an opinion about this.
    I fear that too many men would take advantage of this and leave the pregnant woman completely alone just to avoid responsibility!

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  • A guy should have a say I feel it shouldn’t have to be up to the women to make that decision it should be equal

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  • A very controversial topic here! While I’ve always believed in equal parenting rights, I’m not sure they should go this far. Ultimately, it is the woman who has to carry the baby, that’s life altering in itself. So the ultimate decision has to fe the womans

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  • If that is the way the guys think and don’t want to accept any responsibility for a child they should ensure they are unable to produce sperm. Given the option some guys are going to try to shirk responsbility if they don’t want the baby. If they don’t any contact with the baby that is their choice.

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  • Again misleading title…

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  • For a second when I started to read this article that it meant a man could legal get the woman to have a physical abortion if he didn’t want the child. Thank goodness it wasn’t that. It is hard to say that I agree or disagree with what the actual concept of this article is about. I wouldn’t like it to be called abortion rights to start with. Secondly I am against abortions with there being very few circumstances in which I personally would agree to consenting an abortion to occur. If a father is going to be allowed to sign his rights away as a father it becomes tricky around the financial responsibility side of things. There is also many other issues but my personal views would be an entire blog.

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  • The best way for men to avoid becoming fathers if they don’t want to is to use a condom each and every time.

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  • this is a very contentious issue & it will be a hard slog for any country to make this law. From my own point of view, if you do the deed then you should take precautions if you don’t want a child. Why should anyone have control over some one else’s body? Why should a male have the right to tell a female to abort the child if she want’s it? These are just a couple of questions that need to be discussed before any law could be even thought of. This really does open a Pandora’s box

    Reply

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