Originally Posted by
Teh One Who Knocks
Here's how I look at the abortion debate, and I for the most part am pretty middle of the road about it, I believe that Roe v Wade is precedence and that's the way it should be going forward. However, when it comes to the whole militant feminist 'my body, my choice' and that they should be able to have an abortion any time they want and a man should have no say in the matter, that's where it starts to bother me. These women want it both ways, they want the decision on whether to keep the baby or abort it to be theirs and theirs alone, the man has no say. But, if they decide to keep the baby but the father didn't want her to keep it, the women want him to pay child support. Or, if the father wants the kid but the woman decides to abort, the father has no say in the matter and loses a potential kid.
My wife works in child support enforcement for the county we live in. There is practically ZERO CHANCE of a man getting out of paying child support. No way. If that kid is born, whether you wanted it or not, you will be paying child support until the kid is 18 or 19 years old, depending on the state and/or circumstance. Sure, you can sign away your parental rights, but all that means is you won't ever get to see the kid or be forced to take some kind of partial custody. Doesn't mean you get out of child support, that keeps going. And in some states, the child support laws are so draconian, that you could get stuck paying child support for someone else's kid. There was a story posted here, don't remember exactly when, about a guy who fathered a kid, the woman told him it was his, and he was doing the right thing by paying the child support. Years later he finds out she lied, but because he didn't contest paternity immediately, not only did he lose all that money he already paid in support, but he was required to keep paying it until the kid turned 18.
In the abortion debate, the man will lose every single time. Either there's a kid that he doesn't want but the woman refuses to get an abortion and the guy will be paying child support for the next 18/19 years, or, the guy wants to keep the baby and wants to have a kid but the woman decides to abort it and there's nothing he can do about it. But tell me again how limiting abortion is ruining the reproductive rights of women.
/rant
EDIT: with this all said, I think the law in Alabama goes too far