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Abortion and fairness to the father

I was on George Korda’s State Your Case radio show earlier today. During a break, Mr. Korda forced himself to watch the video at the CBR website.  In the hour we had, we hit many of the standard questions.

One issue that Mr. Korda brought up was the “unfairness” to the father of the child. If the mother decides to abort the child, the father has no say. If the mother decides to keep the child, the father is legally required to provide financial support. In the fog of give-and-take that is live radio, I didn’t get to respond to that comment. I had fielded a similar question in my debate at Eastern Kentucky University—more on that later—a couple of weeks ago.

Fairness to the father is not the issue. If the preborn child is less than human, then the father has no rights to the “blob of tissue” that the mother carries within her own body. Since she is the one carrying the “blob,” it would be her right to decide whether to keep it or not. She has more skin in the game, if I can say it that way. But if she decides to carry, then the father is absolutely liable to support the child financially, not because of her decision to carry, but because of his decision to have sex in the first place.

But if the preborn child is a human being—science tells us he/she is a living human being from the moment of fertilization—then it is the baby’s rights which are at stake, not the father’s. If we treat every human being with equal value and dignity, fairness demands that the baby’s life be protected, regardless of whether or not the child is wanted by the father. If both father and mother freely chose to engage in the reproductive act, then they both share the responsibility to support the child.

Either way, fairness to the father is not an issue.  Fairness to the unborn child (and her mother) are of paramount concern.  Having your life stolen from you because you are “unwanted” is the ultimate unfairness.

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2 Responses to “Abortion and fairness to the father”

  1. August 3rd, 2011 at 6:30 am

    (Prolifer)ations 4-19-11 | FavStocks says:

    […] Fletcher Armstrong writes about his participation in a recent radio debate which focused on father’s rights in an abortion v. mother’s rights, instead of on the rights of the preborn human: […]

  2. November 5th, 2014 at 2:30 am

    Kuenzel says:

    How many fathers ever step forward in an illicit sex encounter? Men walk away after casual sex, women are left with nobody. That’s why organizations run by adult men are so against abortion- who knows how many children they left behind…

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