Another spinoff from the deadbeat dead - thread. So men, what would be a fair solution to the problem of unwanted chlidren being born and the non consenting dad having to pay child support for eightteen years?
I can tell you what the Dutch solution is.
For starters, we have a more practical educational approach to the use of contraceptives. Children are taught that of course they can have sex, and they are even welcome to stay over at their parents house to do it.
“Mom, can my boyfriend sleep over?” is a common question by a sixteen or seventeen old, and will usually be answered with an " of course, nice to meet him, but sweetie, you will be sensible and here are some condoms and it’s a good thing I took you to the doctor to go on the pill six months ago" To which the teenager will often roll her eyes and go: “Moom! We just cuddle!”
We often have a less " hot and steamy taboo"- attitude to sex. Kids can do it, or not, it is not a big deal either way and not something they are judged by their peers for. If anything, having travelled on your own abroad is a bigger source of peer envy then having done “it”.
These attitudes, combined with the readily available birth control, results in an average age of first sex that is very comparable to the US (both 18 years old) but it results in a far, far, lower rate of teenage pregnancies. Average 7 promille in the Netherlands, 55 promille in the US.
Our abortion rate, therefore, is also low: 4 promille against the US 30 promille.
So, I would say that the cultural values over here would make the problem of unwanted births a LOT smaller.
Now suppose a child IS born to a woman where the man did not consent to that happening. In most cases, when the woman earns enough or has enough support of her family not to go be on welfare, they mostly choose to let the man go. There is no law that requires the woman to go after child support.
When the woman is on social assistance, the county will try to extract a part of that from the man. But that happens rarely.
This model could work in the USA, but it would require quite a change in cultural values.