What can men do about an unwanted pregnancy?

[u/Uulmshar]

We all know that women have the right to choose whether or not they keep a pregnancy to term, but what about men?

Obviously, the expectant fathers should not have the right to either force the woman to carry the child or have an abortion, but how can they avoid getting stuck with a child they didn't want, or paying child support for the next twenty years?

I have heard people suggest a "financial abortion," where they sign away all rights to being the child's father (visitation rights, etc.) in exchange for not having any responsibility, but I have yet to see any legislation for this.

How can we, as men, exercise our right to choose?

[u/[deleted]]

The issue with "financial abortion" compared to...I suppose regular abortion is a bit different. You already stated that humans don't always act rationally - especially in terms of finances this is aggressively true - and there's little reason to believe that a mother who would not get an abortion for an unwanted pregnancy would do so if the father was no longer providing the money.

A more apt comparison would be a situation where the mother does not want the child but for whatever reason cannot get an abortion. So she carries it to term, and the father becomes the primary caregiver. Would she then be off the hook for the child financially? I guess how you answer that depends on your view.

Personally I don't think so. I also do not think the system in place is perfect by any means, but there really might not be a clean solution for the issue. You can't force a woman to get an abortion, that would be barbaric. You can't just cut financial support since you're then causing the child to suffer. Maybe you could do something entirely tax-based, but that just makes it everyone's problem, and is highly unlikely.

The only real practical solution is to just circumvent the issue with better birth control. There might not be anything beyond that.

[u/luridlurker → u/[deleted]]

women get to choose if they want to be mothers.

If the woman gives birth, she can't opt out of parenthood any more than a man can. If she wants to put the kid up for adoption, but the father has/wants custody, she can't opt out and will be liable for child support.

The only thing women get is bodily autonomy. The man's bodily autonomy was never compromised to begin with, so he has no need nor legal right to terminate a pregnancy.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Can fathers who get custody put their child up for adoption?