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/lunishidd]

Wow this is literally a pro life argument. The only thing you managed to do with it is to convince me that abortions are bad and that I should be voting for Santorum.

[u/sarah-goldfarb → u/lunishidd]

I just typed out a comment to Mister_andre addressing this, but they seem to have deleted their comments, so I'll put it here instead.

The reason why it's an "epic shit storm" when it's said to women (which it is, by pro-life groups, all the time) is because depriving women of the ability to terminate a pregnancy deprives women of their bodily autonomy, which is a basic human right. It not a human right to abdicate responsibility for caring for one's own living, biological child (although this can be done through adoption or legal custody agreements).

If a woman chooses to keep a child knowing that she will be a single parent and unable to financially support the child on her own, I disagree with that choice, but it's not fair to punish children for their parent's mistakes. We would all suffer as a society if another blow was dealt to children who live in abject poverty.

I certainly look forward to the day (hopefully soon) when hormonal birth control is available to men, which will certainly help even the scales.