Daddy Nobucks: When Involuntary Fathers Are Forced to Foot The Bill
We have a word for disavowing parenthood already: it’s called adoption. I stand ready to be convinced that elective abortion is morally superior to adoption, but I must say that none of what I’ve already seen comes close to a reasonable standard of persuasion. For cases in which it’s not about the health of the mother, why not simply say:
1. the mother can voluntarily (and irrevocably) turn custody over to the father, or
2. the father can voluntarily (and irrevocably) turn custody over to the mother, or
3. both can jointly (either by one turning custody over to the other first, or actually making the decision together) voluntarily and irrevocably turn custody over to the courts, another individual/family, or another appropriate agency (church, hospital, whatever.)
You lose elective abortions and enforced non-custodial child support. You also lose all the nasty legal wrangling that comes up when you have non-married parents fighting over the child, the support payments, and so forth. I work as a legal assistant on GAL and custody cases, and it’s a nightmare for all parties, including the court system, to try and sort it all out. My parents did the semi-responsible thing (they divorced, hence the “semi”) and went through a mediator rather than the court system for custody stuff; they also managed to act like adults long enough for me to turn 18 and solve the problem permanently. But if there had been trouble, the juvenile court system, which was meant for abuse and delinquency problems, would have taken over.
Oh, yeah, and don’t have sex, and especially unprotected sex (and that’s what it is if you believe the girl who says “oh, no, baby, I can’t get pregnant”) if you don’t want children. My gosh. The 14-year-old is one thing, but the rest of us are supposed to be grown-ups, right?
