eBay has amazing daily deals


Give Men Reproductive Rights, Too | Opinion


1 day ago 7
-->

Modern feminism has been rooted in securing a woman's guaranteed right to decide whether she wants to bring her pregnancy to term. Devastatingly, in most U.S. states, that right is now denied after countless political, social, and media campaigns have failed on this front.

One problem is that we have refused to embrace our biggest ally group: men, who hold similar views on abortion rights as women, and also benefit when they have agency over their parenthood.

While we fight for women to have the right to decide whether she has the maturity, financial, or emotional resources to bring a pregnancy to term, men are legally responsible to financially support any biological child, yet have never enjoyed the right to decide whether to become a father.

Couple holding hands
A couple is seen holding hands. Jan Sochor/Getty Images

Unmarried men face an uphill battle to claim paternity, or even prevent their own children from being adopted. After divorce or separation, dads struggle to gain equal custody and parenting time with their kids. Meanwhile, men who may not have chosen to be a father are still legally required to pay child support. Poor men, and men of color, are especially at a disadvantage, especially since they tend to not be married to their children's mothers, and do not benefit from paternity presumptions automatically granted to married men.

Men, just as women, are penalized when they become parents against their will.

Like for women, studies find that reproductive rights secure men's financial security: men whose partners had abortions are more likely to graduate from college and earn more, and like their female partners, they typically already have children whose financial interests they are concerned about when a new pregnancy occurs.

When men have control over when they become fathers, they are better dads and co-parents. A study by Guttmacher Institute researchers found that fathers who did not expect to become fathers are less likely to live with their kids, be engaged parents, or feel positive about their roles as fathers. The children of unplanned pregnancies tended to struggle emotionally, be less developed intellectually, and were raised by higher-conflict co-parents. This all means more care work and responsibility for the mothers, and dads who are more likely to be depressed.

There is a solution, though, and it is straightforward.

When a woman finds she is pregnant, she has a window of 60 days to make an earnest attempt to get a written statement from the biological father of her child to commit to being engaged, or choose to terminate his parental rights. This agreement either commits or absolves him from any parenting rights or responsibilities, including financial. "Paper abortions" have been advocated for by legal scholars and social scientists for decades.

Don't get me wrong: a man cannot—nor should he ever—have any say over whether a woman carries a fetus to term or aborts. But a man should also not ever be forced to be a father—or to abdicate his role of father—against his will.

Typically, the argument in response to this suggestion is, "If a man doesn't want to be a father, he should keep it in his pants!" It infantilizes women to suggest that only men's pants need to be held accountable for unwanted pregnancies. The urge to have—and enjoy—sex is genderless. The responsibility that comes with sex is also genderless. And the human right to easy access to safe abortions should also be genderless.

Granting all genders fundamental human rights as to when to become a parent is central to ceasing gender wars. When men and women enjoy equal rights, they are more likely to bear equal time, money, and care responsibility for any children they may produce. And from a political perspective, enfolding men into the war on reproductive rights could be the key to ensuring legalized abortion.

Emma Johnson is the author of The 50/50 Solution: The Surprisingly Simple Choice that Makes Moms, Dads, and Kids Happier and Healthier after a Split (Sourcebooks, March 26). She is a lifelong journalist, former AP reporter, and an expert on family and gender and has appeared in hundreds of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Fox & Friends, and Elle. She's spoken about equal parenting at the United Nations Summit for Gender Equality and at Google.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Read Entire Article