A Father's Rights

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

Let’s suppose that a man and woman conceive a child. And that the woman decides to have an abortion. What are the father’s right to prevent this. How far can a father go to save his child? Not just what the law woefully limits, but morally what can the father do?

 

[1ke]

In the United States, he has **no **legal rights at all.

Morally, he can try to persuade the woman not to have an abortion. He can offer support-- financial, emotional, and otherwise-- and if not married he can offer marriage as well. He can state clearly that he is against abortion and will not abandon the woman and that he WANTS the baby-- that is often enough to dissuade a woman contemplating abortion.

He can recommend going together to counseling, to a pregnancy help center, and he can recommend/procure literature on the fetal development of the child and dangers of abortion (www.hh76.com and www.omsoul.com for resources).

 

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

I know that the laws in the U.S. are deplorable when it comes to this topic.

To you think that is all a father can do? I would think that more than anyone, the father would have the most right to do the most to prevent an abortion, even physically.

If a child has been born and someone is about to kill the child, one would expect the father to protect his child - even to the point of physically harming the assailant. Even when father’s have been brought up on charges for murdering someone about to or who have already hurt their child, juries seem to understand and even condone that action.

So what’s the difference if the child is unborn? How far, morally, can a father go to protect his child still in the womb?

 

[1ke]

To you think that is all a father can do?

Yes

I would think that more than anyone, the father would have the most right to do the most to prevent an abortion, even physically.

And, what would you suggest, that he tie her down for 9 months?

If a child has been born and someone is about to kill the child, one would expect the father to protect his child - even to the point of physically harming the assailant.

And, in this case the assailant is the mother and harming her harms the child. Also, in the case of someon about to kill an already-born child the threat is immediate, and discrete in time. The mother, OTOH, can abort the child at any time and can change her mind at any time. The threat is not immediate and discrete and you cannot harm someone to prevent what they “might” do.

Even when father’s have been brought up on charges for murdering someone about to or who have already hurt their child, juries seem to understand and even condone that action.

What a jury condones is irrelevant to the morality of the act.

So what’s the difference if the child is unborn? How far, morally, can a father go to protect his child still in the womb?

What would you propose he do?

 

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

What would you propose he do?

I really don’t know. That’s kind of why I’m asking the question. It just seems that praying and some counseling aren’t enough, especially if the mother is adamant about procuring an abortion. If I were placed in that awful situation, I don’t know what I would do.

 

[SeekerJen]

Dads really don’t have rights. Even if the kids are biologically theirs and they were previously married to the mother, it seems as though the only right they can count on (at least in my state) is the right to pay child support. We’re watching a friend be assaulted again and again by the state legal system and his ex-wife with regards to custody. His son loves him and would like to spend more time with him, but if the ex had her way, she would have sole custody and our friend would do nothing except contribute most of his income. Thankfully the son is nearly a teen and thus of an age where the courts will start taking his opinion under consideration.

There also seems to be a double standard with regards to babies in utero. People deplore the fact that fathers have no legal rights to prevent abortions, but I’ve heard many of the same deplore the fact that a man who impregnates a woman to whom he is not married has basic legal rights to the child if she chooses to continue the pregnancy (meaning that he has to sign off on adoption and can petition for custody). I’ve heard people say that the woman should get the man to sign away his rights, he wouldn’t be responsible, he’ll just get in the way, it’s up to the mother to decide what happens to the child and the father shouldn’t have any say or even the right to raise his own baby if the mother wants to give up the child. Seriously folks, make up your minds! Either the father has rights from conception or he has none at all. It doesn’t make any sense otherwise.

 

[gardenswithkids]

I really don’t know. That’s kind of why I’m asking the question. It just seems that praying and some counseling aren’t enough, especially if the mother is adamant about procuring an abortion. If I were placed in that awful situation, I don’t know what I would do.

Fathers have no legal rights in the United States to prevent their child from being aborted. Good fathers need to act right morally to protect their children before their children are even concieved.

A good man dates with care, realizing the woman may one day be the mother of his children, (and he should view all women as potential wives and mothers, not as sexual objects.) If he realizes a woman he dates supports abortion, he should stop dating her before she ever gets the chance to concieve and abort his child. Even if the woman he dates shares his pro-life views, they both need to practice chastity and keep their pants zipped, because even women who think abortion is wrong may be tempted to abort if they become pregnant in awkward circumstances.

If despite all his care, he fails morally and falls into temptations, and if the woman becomes pregnant and wants to abort, he doesn’t have legal rights to stop her. But many women who abort do so because they don’t have support from their partner or they felt abandoned by the father or thought he wanted her to abort. The father should encourage the woman to carry his child full-term and support her to do this in any way he can. As hard as it might be, he must be very careful not act like a jerk. He must rise to great heroism, praying and fasting and doing everything with great care and charity. He is not obligated to marry her, but he should consider that option–remembering that marriage would likely create more children so he must choose his wife with care. That brings back the concept that men need to view women with respect as potential wives and mothers.

Abortion is not just a woman’s issue–abortion is a symptom of a bigger problem in our society, and babies sometimes pay the price for those problems with their lives.

 

[IrishAm]

I wish I could find the statistics, but I read not long ago that the single most influential factor in a woman’s decision to have an abortion is the desire of the unborn child’s father.

So, those posting are correct; in the US the father does not have any legal rights. But, if the above statement is correct, it would appear the father typically has a great dal of influence. You want to stop the abortion? Cherish the mother.

 

[Newbie2]

Is there a legal difference when the couple is married or not married? My guess is that state laws vary on this. Any legal scholars out there?

Morally, it would seem to make little difference in the matter of the abortion.

 

[zagjames]

I have a family friend who is retired from the legal profession, who when he was practicing represented a father who wanted the child the mother wanted to abort. He won the case the woman was legally prevented from having an abortion, because the father also had the right to choose.

 

[puzzleannie]

Hello,

Let’s suppose that a man and woman conceive a child. And that the woman decides to have an abortion. What are the father’s right to prevent this. How far can a father go to save his child? Not just what the law woefully limits, but morally what can the father do?

legally the father has no rights in the US under current laws. neither do the grandparents, even parents of a mother who is a minor. if the father is married to the expectant mother, some states may recognize his right to influence the decision, but ultimately the law gives the choice to the woman.

in actuality, the father has a great deal of influence. in my time praying in front of the clinics, the woman seems most often to be brought in by a man, and I assume this is often the father of the child.

 

[AgnosTheist]

Hello,

I know that the laws in the U.S. are deplorable when it comes to this topic.

To you think that is all a father can do? I would think that more than anyone, the father would have the most right to do the most to prevent an abortion, even physically.

If a child has been born and someone is about to kill the child, one would expect the father to protect his child - even to the point of physically harming the assailant. Even when father’s have been brought up on charges for murdering someone about to or who have already hurt their child, juries seem to understand and even condone that action.

So what’s the difference if the child is unborn? How far, morally, can a father go to protect his child still in the womb?

what do you have us males do? beat the pregnant woman into agreeing with us?

 

[BlestOne]

I would love to seriously see more men get court orders to stop a woman from aborting their child. I think if enough men did this, women would be forced to have the father of their babies sign a consent form. I pray this would make men think twice about this!