by Tricia Muller

Created on: February 21, 2010

  The question of a father's rights has become a bit controversial recently. Should a father be able to opt out of parenting? Should a man have the right to choose to be a parent? Since a woman has that right, I believe that a man should as well. When a woman finds out she is pregnant she has many options open to her. She can keep the baby, get an abortion or put it up for adoption. However, when a man gets a woman pregnant what rights does he have? If she wants an abortion, but he wants the baby, he has very little recourse in the matter. If he doesn't want a child and she does he has to pay child support anyway. If he wants the baby put up for adoption and she doesn't, again, he has to pay child support.

  The way I see it, in this day and age men have almost no rights when it comes to decisions about being a parent. There are many, many men out there who never wanted to be fathers, and don't see their children, either because they choose not to, or the mother won't allow it, who are still busting their butts to pay adequate support, or spending inordinate amounts of time in court and\or jail because they don't, or can't, pay it.

  It takes two to create a child, why is it only one parent gets to decide the fate of that child if the parents aren't married, or in a lasting relationship. Even if they are in a relationship, most women don't even think to offer the father his choice. Why is it that if man says he doesn't want a baby it's looked on as a crime, but a woman has a choice in the matter and it's such a big deal that it has caused controversy for decades? We hear constantly about a woman's right to choose, what about a man's?

  It's time for some legal changes to be made giving men a right to say what happens to the child they helped to create, not just force him to pay support for eighteen years because the mother made a choice to keep the child. The laws governing this matter are outdated and discriminatory, to say the least. Write to your congressman, your local representative, start a petition, but let's get this matter taken care of. Let us stop cheating half of the race of their rights.

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