Replies to '07/06 Baby Wars'

First of all, equal protection is not nearly as simple as it may seem. Equal protection applies to persons similarly situated. This is not the case for pregnant women and nonpregnant women or men.  

Secondly, men and women are both financially responsible for the support of their child(ren).  

Third, Roe v. Wade is about a woman's right to privacy and bodily integrity. It is not about getting rid of an unwanted burden. One of the tragedies of the Dubay case is that it is making it seem as though men see Roe v. Wade and abortion as a right to opt out of parenthood, or a right to get rid of that unwanted burden. Of course that may be true for some women but the vast majority of women who support choice view the Roe rights as the right to control their physical destiny. 

Fourth, men do have the right not to be parents. Their right to not conceive a child occurs at the same time as a woman's right to not conceive. However, once that risk zone is entered, the integrity of a woman's body is the issue and her rights supercede the man's. As far as opting out of parenthood, that is exactly what Dubay has done. Now he also wants to opt out of providing for his flesh and blood. And he wants the courts to say that the U.S. Constitution guarantees a man a right to opt out of being a father and therefore avoid helping to financially support his child. Not going to happen. 

Fifth, the Dubay issues have come before the courts before and have been resoundingly rejected. The only reason this case is making the news is because Mel Feit's group is providing financial support and garnering publicity.  Feit has been trolling around and running advertisements since the early 1990s to find a "suitable plaintiff." I'm not sure what "suitable" means. Cynicism leads me to believe that Feit was looking for a young white male with no priors. 

Finally, there are serious inequities and injustices that occur in the present child support system. There is no question that this needs to be remedied, probably legislatively. I have seen men and women financially devastated by child support orders that seem to have no regard for the payor's real-life financial situation. I've seen wealthy custodial parents get child support orders against noncustodial parents on welfare. So, yes, there are problems in the system. But these problems will not be remedied if Dubay were to prevail. The problems will be multiplied geometrically and will further cause untold emotional issues to arise. 

The real men's issues that need to be addressed, and where I'd really like to see Feit's group put their efforts and money, is on fathers' custodial issues, including noncustodial fathers with children who are being or have been relocated at great distances.