Men’s Rights Group Files Lawsuit Saying Abortion Right is Gender Bias 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 9, 2006
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A men’s rights group says that if women have the right to have an abortion and end a pregnancy a couple has started, men should have the same right to end their responsibilities towards a pregnancy as well. That could include not paying child support and the organization has file a lawsuit to that effect.
The National Center for Men has filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court in Michigan that it’s calling the Roe v. Wade for men.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Saginaw resident Matt Dubay, a 25 year-old computer programmer who was ordered to pay child support for his ex-girlfriend’s daughter.
The lawsuit claims ordering Dubay to pay child support is a violation of the Constitution’s equal protection clause because women can have abortions of babies they don’t want to support.
"There’s such a spectrum of choice that women have — it’s her body, her pregnancy and she has the ultimate right to make decisions," Mel Feit, director of the National Center for Men, told the Associated Press.
"I’m trying to find a way for a man also to have some say over decisions that affect his life profoundly," he said.
AP reports Feit’s group has been searching for a good case since the 1990s and found it in Dubay.
Dubay says his former girlfriend lied to him that she had a physical condition that prevented her from becoming pregnant. He said she knew he didn’t want to have a baby and told AP she confirmed she could not get pregnant.
"What I expect to hear (from the court) is that the way things are is not really fair, but that’s the way it is," he told the Associated Press. "Just to create awareness would be enough, to at least get a debate started."
Courts have previously ruled in similar cases that the need to provide for children outweighs the unfairness in reproductive law in society.
Should Dubay win his case, there is some concern that such a decision could drive up the number of abortions.
Feminists for Life, a pro-woman pro-life group, notes that some fathers put women in a situation that makes them feel financially pressured into having an abortion by threatening to withdraw or actually withdrawing their financial support if the woman does not have an abortion.
"Statistics gathered by abortion supporters reveal that the primary reasons women with unintended pregnancies turn to abortion are lack of financial resources and lack of emotional support," the group says. "Many women also say they felt abandoned, or even coerced into having an abortion. Despite child support laws, some fathers threaten to withhold support."
The group has said that, without serious efforts to improve enforcement of child support payments, "no serious effort can be made to move single mothers toward self-sufficiency."
Related web sites:
Feminists for Life of America – https://www.feministsforlife.org
