# Abortion and child support

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 13, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985 "2010-12-13T15:24:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 40

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**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/781 "2011-01-18T18:46:25Z")

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> [@Polerius](#):
>
> In the 1950s, the laws went one way. Today, they went another way. Most people see the 1950s end of the spectrum as unfair to women, and some see today’s end of the spectrum as unfair to men. What people are proposing in this thread are some potential other legal frameworks that try to even things out, while still trying to keep in balance with the rest of our laws and freedoms.

There’s one other person with legal rights in this equation that you’re leaving out.

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**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/782 "2011-01-18T18:51:15Z")

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> [@pravnik](#):
>
> [Gomez v. Perez](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=409&invol=535), 409 U.S. 535 (1973). I pointed exactly this out to you back on page 9 in post #[405](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=409&invol=535).

Sorry, wrong link: #[405](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13272012&postcount=405).

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**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/783 "2011-01-18T18:52:00Z")

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> [@Polerius](#):
>
> **Damuri** , I think some people in this thread will never see the argument you and others are trying to make. They are too blinded by the “men and women are different by nature” argument to see beyond that.
> 
> Of _course_ men and women are different by nature, and therefore their role in a pregnancy is vastly different. This is not a big revelation. The question is how does society handle this difference?
> 
> What is funny, is that with a change in laws we are having the same set of arguments that people used to make to get women to not have sex, applied now to men.
> 
> **1950s** :  
> [ul]  
> [li]Abortions are outlawed and women are legally obligated to give birth to children they don’t want. [/li][li]Women: “But we want to be able to have sex only for pleasure, and if a baby results we want to be able to get away from the responsibility of having a child”. [/li][li]Society: “Sorry, you can have sex for pleasure, but if you 100% don’t want a baby, don’t let a man insert his penis into your vagina. A woman volunteers to have a baby by having sex with a man and not using a condom.”[/li][/ul]
> 
> **2010** :  
> [ul]  
> [li]Abortions are legal and men are legally obligated to pay for children they don’t want. [/li][li]Men: “But we want to be able to have sex only for pleasure, and if a baby results we want to be able to get away from the responsibility of having a child”. [/li][li]Society: “Sorry, you can have sex for pleasure, but if you 100% don’t want a baby, don’t insert your penis into a woman’s vagina. A man volunteers to have a baby by having sex with a woman and not using a condom.”[/li][/ul]
> 
> In both the 1950s and 2010, the human body is the same, nature is the same. It’s only the laws and people’s attitudes that changed. So, saying that the way things are is an immutable fact of nature, based on the anatomy of men and women, so “just suck it up, men”, is obviously wrong. It’s based on the anatomy of men and women, plus any laws we put in place.
> 
> In the 1950s, the laws went one way. Today, they went another way. Most people see the 1950s end of the spectrum as unfair to women, and some see today’s end of the spectrum as unfair to men. What people are proposing in this thread are some potential other legal frameworks that try to even things out, while still trying to keep in balance with the rest of our laws and freedoms.
> 
> _TLDR version:_ If you are uncomfortable with someone in the 1950s telling a woman “A woman volunteers to have a baby by having sex with a man and not using a condom, and that’s just a fact of nature, so suck it up” maybe, just maybe, you can take a second to understand why some people maybe uncomfortable when someone in 2010 tells a man “A man volunteers to have a baby by having sex with a woman and not using a condom, and that’s just a fact of nature, so suck it up”.

That ignores a simple fact: unless we see radical changes in biology men cannot get pregnant. What’s unfair is that men cannot get pregnant and women can. It’s unfair because all the physical burdens of actually bringing children into this world fall on women and women alone. That cannot be changed. It should not be made even more unequal.

Your proposal not only continues to ignore that essential unchangeable biological fact, it actually makes things even more unfair for women and children. A man who willingly has sex and does not want to use effective birth control or find a partner who will agree to an abortion afterwards should she get pregnant should not be able to simply declare that he did not want the baby and does not want to support it. That has no comparison with a woman who has sex and then faces birth control failure and must face two difficult choices: either have an abortion or have a baby.

Society has every interest in not forcing an unwilling woman into bearing a child she does not want to bear. We most certainly do not have an interest in deciding to make abortion illegal based on a stranger’s religious or moral beliefs. Society has no interest at all in letting a man walk away from supporting his own children.

No legal framework should condone the alleged right of a man to father children and foster all the costs of caring for children on everyone else but him. That’s not “freedom” or “fairness.” That’s simply a lazy jerk who wants sexual pleasure without the clear reasonable rational expectation of sexual responsibility.

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/784 "2011-01-18T19:32:00Z")

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> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#):
>
> So the fuck what? The woman has the extra option because it’s in her damn body. Sentient Sea Horses might do things in reverse, birds could do it either/or, but humans gestate their young internally in the female. Nature’s a bitch, and cares fuck all if you think it’s fair or not. Abortion is about right to control one’s own body.

The woman has extra fucking options because we have fucking given her the damn right to those options. Abortions are about more than the fucking right to control ones body. It is about the damn right to fucking kill a fucking fetus. A fetus that (using your rationale) you fucking agreed to have as soon as you had sex. (See how my argument is more persuasive when I sprinkle it with words like fucking and damn?)

> [@](#):
>
> Child support is about a child’s right to be supported by the people who brought the child into the world. The child had no choice about coming into the world. However both the parents did.

Why does the child have the right to support from its biological parents, especially from one that did not want it to begin with? Why can’t the state support the baby if a woman has a baby she cannot afford?

> [@](#):
>
> Men don’t get periods, but enjoy the fruits of females maintaining fertility such as the continuation of the damn species. In fairness than, using your logic, shouldn’t men have a tampon tax imposed for redistribution to even out that externaliaty for hygiene products, pain and suffering? If not, again, using your logic, why is it fair to stick women with those costs when the functions generating them are necessary for both groups?

Because one is biologically driven and the other is legally derived.

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/785 "2011-01-18T19:39:01Z")

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> [@villa](#):
>
> Because, and this is something you have staggeringly failed to notice, girlie bits are different to boy bits. We don’t force people to have invasive medical procedures. It’s not considered a nice thing to do. It’s a product of biology (and civilization) that women have longer to determine whether a particular sexual act will result in a child, because their bodies are involved in the process longer.
> 
> However, both parties chose whether to accept the risk of creating a child. You just want to run away afterwards and deny your responsibilities.

How have both parties accepted the risk of a child when the woman can get an abortion?

We have never forced women to have abortions, I don’t think anyone is proposing that father have the right to force women to have abortions, I don’t know how that even enters the conversation. We are not forcing a woman to have an abortion by telling her that she cannot rely on a reluctant father for financial support in raising a child, its her choice.

Equating a woman’s right to an abortion to a man’s right to abstain from sex is kind of comical isn’t it?

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**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/786 "2011-01-18T19:45:19Z")

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> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> We are not forcing a woman to have an abortion by telling her that she cannot rely on a reluctant father for financial support in raising a child, its her choice.

Am I misremembering, or do you claim to be a lawyer?

Look at whose rights are at stake. Who is being supported here. Then you will realize why you are just flat out wrong.

Situation 1.

Man and woman have sex. Woman gets pregnant. Woman has abortion. No child support owed.

Situation 2.

Man and woman have sex. Woman gets pregnant. Woman does not have abortion. Child born. **CHILD HAS RIGHTS TO SUPPORT**.

The woman in neither situation has a financial claim on the man. The child does. I know this is the moment for **ZPG** to come in saying that women do this deliberately to live in luxury off men, and you to start blathering again “why isn’t it a flat rate.” But that is both of you, as you have the whole way, ignoring the fundamental issue. The child has the right to support. At least she is willing to admit that she doesn’t believe a child has that right, and should be left by the roadway to starve. You, on the other hand, talk around and around and around and around this issue, either deliberately ignoring or simply being incapable of understanding that this isn’t about women’s rights as to the wallets of men, is about a child’s rights to the wallets of its parents.

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/787 "2011-01-18T19:45:39Z")

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> [@villa](#):
>
> Are you on some kind of loop? Or is the needle stuck in a scratch. saying it hundreds of times the same way doesn’t mean people will agree with you. They might, on the other hand, walk away from boredom.

I’m getting pretty tired of repeating myself. I have addressed every point you have made in this thread, I don’t think you can say the same thing.

Are you under the impression that you have not been repeating yourself?

Perhaps we must agree to diasagree.

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**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/788 "2011-01-18T19:48:35Z")

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No. I know I have repeated myself.

Because you, **ZPG** , and the rest of the “it’s so unfair men have to support children they created” brigade are ignoring one simple fact. It’s the child’s right, not the woman’s.

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/789 "2011-01-18T21:03:47Z")

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> [@pravnik](#):
>
> No, the law can’t treat children born in and out of wedlock differently. You can’t legally do away with child support for illegitimate children and keep it for children born in wedlock. It’s a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to provide child support for on class of children but not another. You have to make it available for all children, or none.
> 
> [Gomez v. Perez](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=409&invol=535), 409 U.S. 535 (1973). I pointed exactly this out to you back on page 9 in post #[405](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=409&invol=535). If you’re sensing a tone of exasperation in those responding to you, having to repeat the same thing over and over is exactly why these threads are so frustrating.

Yeah, I remember that post, I don’t remember you citing any caselaw. I then came across inheritance laws that did in fact distinguish between legitimate and illeglitimate children. This distinction was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1971, Labine v. Vincent (1971).

Gomez v. Perez seems to be more on point than cases regarding inheritance.

Perhaps you can tell me why the Supreme Court distinguishes equal protection for child support from inheritances.

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/790 "2011-01-18T21:15:37Z")

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> [@LavenderBlue](#):
>
> That ignores a simple fact: unless we see radical changes in biology men cannot get pregnant. What’s unfair is that men cannot get pregnant and women can. It’s unfair because all the physical burdens of actually bringing children into this world fall on women and women alone. That cannot be changed. It should not be made even more unequal.
> 
> Your proposal not only continues to ignore that essential unchangeable biological fact, it actually makes things even more unfair for women and children. A man who willingly has sex and does not want to use effective birth control or find a partner who will agree to an abortion afterwards should she get pregnant should not be able to simply declare that he did not want the baby and does not want to support it. That has no comparison with a woman who has sex and then faces birth control failure and must face two difficult choices: either have an abortion or have a baby.
> 
> Society has every interest in not forcing an unwilling woman into bearing a child she does not want to bear. We most certainly do not have an interest in deciding to make abortion illegal based on a stranger’s religious or moral beliefs. Society has no interest at all in letting a man walk away from supporting his own children.
> 
> No legal framework should condone the alleged right of a man to father children and foster all the costs of caring for children on everyone else but him. That’s not “freedom” or “fairness.” That’s simply a lazy jerk who wants sexual pleasure without the clear reasonable rational expectation of sexual responsibility.

I don’t think anyone is ignoring the differences in biology.

In your hypo, why does the guy engage in unprotected sex and the woman has the misfortune of having a broken condom. What if the guy’s condom broke? What if the girl was on the pill and got pregnant anyway?

Why is there no interest in making abortion illegal? States can in fact regulate or even criminalize abortions after the first trimester, can’t they? The right to abortion is not absolute, is it?

I suppose one reason you would allow men to disavow their biological children is to make sure women only have children that they can support either alone or with a willing father.

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**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/791 "2011-01-18T21:20:42Z")

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> [@villa](#):
>
> Am I misremembering, or do you claim to be a lawyer?

Yep, a tax lawyer. But for most purposes related to the law, I might as well be a well informed orthodontist.

I trot out the fact that I am a tax lawyer when people start making up shit about how lowering the tax rate will increase tax revenue and other bullshit like that. I also trot it out when Rand Rover tries to imply that he is a useful member of society that “adds value” in proportion to his income (not taht he doesn’t add any but its not really proportional).

> [@](#):
>
> Look at whose rights are at stake. Who is being supported here. Then you will realize why you are just flat out wrong.
> 
> Situation 1.
> 
> Man and woman have sex. Woman gets pregnant. Woman has abortion. No child support owed.
> 
> Situation 2.
> 
> Man and woman have sex. Woman gets pregnant. Woman does not have abortion. Child born. **CHILD HAS RIGHTS TO SUPPORT**.

Because we have given them that right. Why should they have that right from an unwilling biological father?

> [@](#):
>
> The child has the right to support. At least she is willing to admit that she doesn’t believe a child has that right, and should be left by the roadway to starve. You, on the other hand, talk around and around and around and around this issue, either deliberately ignoring or simply being incapable of understanding that this isn’t about women’s rights as to the wallets of men, is about a child’s rights to the wallets of its parents.

And why can’t the state support the child? I can understand child support in cases where the biological father has implicitly or explicitly agreed to support the child why does a child have the right to the wallet of a parent that didn’t want them to begin with? I’ll tell you why, because the law says so, and that is not enough to make it right.

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**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/792 "2011-01-18T21:30:04Z")

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> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> Yep, a tax lawyer. But for most purposes related to the law, I might as well be a well informed orthodontist.

I would have hoped at law school you would have picked up some analytical skills, though.

> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> Because we have given them that right. Why should they have that right from an unwilling biological father?
> 
> And why can’t the state support the child?

Well, if your agenda is that it is better that my taxes should go to pay for the consequences of you getting your rocks off, than it is for you to put your hand in your own pocket, I might accused you of being more than a little self centered.

The purpose of child support laws is to prevent the children being dependent on the state. We don’t think it is a good idea, generally, to make people dependent on the state when there are other viable alternatives. We think it better that people work than sit at home receiving welfare. Not least because of that deficit thing out there.

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**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/793 "2011-01-18T21:47:18Z")

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> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> Yeah, I remember that post, I don’t remember you citing any caselaw. I then came across inheritance laws that did in fact distinguish between legitimate and illeglitimate children. This distinction was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1971, Labine v. Vincent (1971).

Which was overruled by _Trimble v. Gordon_, 430 U.S. 762 (1977), and again in _Reed v. Campbell_, 476 U.S. 852 (1986).

> [@Damuri Ajashi](#):
>
> Gomez v. Perez seems to be more on point than cases regarding inheritance.
> 
> Perhaps you can tell me why the Supreme Court distinguishes equal protection for child support from inheritances.

It doesn’t in any significant way, but even if it did doing so would again derail the conversation from the matter being discussed. The fact of the matter is that the Equal Protection Clause requires that illegitimate and legitimate children be treated the same for purposes of child support.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/794 "2011-01-18T23:45:49Z")

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> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> I don’t think anyone is ignoring the differences in biology.
> 
> In your hypo, why does the guy engage in unprotected sex and the woman has the misfortune of having a broken condom. What if the guy’s condom broke? What if the girl was on the pill and got pregnant anyway?
> 
> Why is there no interest in making abortion illegal? States can in fact regulate or even criminalize abortions after the first trimester, can’t they? The right to abortion is not absolute, is it?
> 
> I suppose one reason you would allow men to disavow their biological children is to make sure women only have children that they can support either alone or with a willing father.

So we should make abortion illegal. Then we should allow men to walk away from supporting their biological children. Because if we don’t it’s unfair to men who want to fuck and not deal with the results.

That’s insane. Again you are simply putting ALL of the burden of childbearing and child rearing on one sex. Worse, you are ludicrously doing so in the name of some absurd notion of fairness. First she has to make sure that she can support a child alone by herself even though the child carries half of someone else’s DNA. Then she has to find a willing partner. And by willing we apparently mean a man who will actually agree to help support the child he plans to help create. Then she has to carry the child for nine months and give birth to it. She isn’t allowed to have an abortion because it wouldn’t be fair to the man because he can’t get one.

If at any point the men objects to this process he can simply stick her with all the bills related to childrearing. Because to allow her to collect child support would be otherwise unfair. To men.

You have a truly strange definition of fairness.

> [@](#):
>
> And why can’t the state support the child? I can understand child support in cases where the biological father has implicitly or explicitly agreed to support the child why does a child have the right to the wallet of a parent that didn’t want them to begin with? I’ll tell you why, because the law says so, and that is not enough to make it right.

You have got to be kidding me here. It’s wrong to ask a man to support his biological children . . . but it’s perfectly acceptable to make complete strangers support that child? Strangers who literally had nothing to do with his decision to stick his dick somewhere? And this is somehow supposed to be in the name of fairness?

Huh? Why should taxpayers get to pick up the tab for a man’s careless breeding decisions?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/795 "2011-01-18T23:53:25Z")

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> [@villa](#):
>
> No. I know I have repeated myself.
> 
> Because you, **ZPG** , and the rest of the “it’s so unfair men have to support children they created” brigade are ignoring one simple fact. It’s the child’s right, not the woman’s.

It’s a right the child shouldn’t have.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/796 "2011-01-18T23:55:08Z")

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> [@LavenderBlue](#):
>
> Why should taxpayers get to pick up the tab for a man’s careless breeding decisions?

They aren’t picking up the tab for a man’s careless breeding decisions. They are picking up the tab for a woman’s careless gestating decision.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/797 "2011-01-19T00:06:44Z")

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> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#):
>
> They aren’t picking up the tab for a man’s careless breeding decisions. They are picking up the tab for a woman’s careless gestating decision.

You can’t gestate without a man’s breeding decisions. No man has the right to ask strangers to pay child support for him.

This thread is completely ridiculous. In the name of “fairness” some people apparently believe that men should simply be able to fuck and breed without any consequences at all. What a demeaning view of half of humanity!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/798 "2011-01-19T04:08:32Z")

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> [@LavenderBlue](#):
>
> You can’t gestate without a man’s breeding decisions. No man has the right to ask strangers to pay child support for him.
> 
> This thread is completely ridiculous. In the name of “fairness” some people apparently believe that men should simply be able to fuck and breed without any consequences at all. What a demeaning view of half of humanity!

Yes you can; simply find a way to acquire a sperm sample (rape works), mix up an embryo, and you’re good to go. Moreover, there’s plenty of precedent saying that the father is still eligible for child support.

No, men are the ones who can’t make breeding decisions; any breeding that goes on happens at the sole discretion of the owner of the uterus in which the gestation is taking place.

And, power implies responsibility, etc.

Or, power doesn’t imply responsibility, children just have an inherent right to support, and fathers don’t have a right to ask for child support, they have a right to take it if they can’t provide it, since people don’t have an affirmative right to their own money greater than the affirmative right of children to be supported.

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**Author:** ![hmiller23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/fbc32d/32.png) [@hmiller23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hmiller23)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/799 "2011-01-19T04:16:22Z")

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> [@villa](#):
>
> This again?
> 
> Child support is the right of the child. If the mother chooses to abort, there is no child. If she does not, then the extant child has a right to be supported, both by the mother and the sperm donor.
> 
> It really isn’t complicated, and it isn’t a big nasty conspiracy to screw men over.

I agree.. It took 2 to tango.. And child support does not even cover half of what the custodial parent has to pay for the child.. If you make it you take care of it.

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**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-and-child-support/563985/800 "2011-01-19T05:08:07Z")

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> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#):
>
> It’s a right the child shouldn’t have.

Yes. Your position is known and at least consistent. It’s an odious opinion, but at least a consistent one.

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