The National Center for Men has launched its “voluntary fatherhood” project by filing a federal lawsuit, arguing that as long as women can chose to have an abortion, then men should have the right to chose fatherhood—and to decide whether they pay child support or not. The Center’s affidavit reads:
We will ask a United States district court judge to apply the principles of reproductive choice, as articulated in Roe vs. Wade, to men. We will ask that men be granted equal protection of the laws which safeguard the right of women to make family planning decisions after sex. We will argue that, at a time of reproductive freedom for women, fatherhood must be more than a matter of DNA: A man must choose to be a father in the same way that a woman chooses to be a mother.
The lawsuit has little chance of winning, and for good reason. Yes, women have the same access to birth control as men, and also have the right to an abortion. But the problem here is the simple truth that women and men are not equal in their child-bearing roles. The government forcing a woman to carry a baby to term is not the same as a man carrying a financial burden. The National Center for Men can call it a double standard. I call it biology.