Supreme Court passes law allowing men to be the sole decision makers regarding the abortion of their child. Imagine the outrage that this law would spark; among feminist groups, families, all women and more if this were to be passed. The thought of this ever being a real law seems ridiculous and obscene. While it is an extreme law it is not completely different from what the abortion law is today. Women have the only legal rights when it comes to the decision to abort their child. So as extreme as it seems to give men complete control over an abortion, is it not equally wrong to give a woman sole reign over the life of their child?  Abortion is a topic that is rarely ever easy to talk about. The law says that the choice to have an abortion is between the woman and her body, however I am claiming that this is not fair or true. There is clearly another person that should be involved in making the decision to have an abortion. That person is the father. This essay is going to take research and use it to illustrate the importance of a father's rights.

This issue is not only about the lack of legal rights the father has but also about the lack of concern of the fathers' emotional and psychological health. While not yet a large group, there is a group of men and women who are devoted to the cause of helping fathers with their pain. There is a personal testimony website that is available for men and women to write about and share their stories of abortion. One of the stories that I read was from a man named Jim from Rhode Island.  He speaks about how it took him years later after the abortion to come to terms about what happened, he speaks about the pain and grief he feels knowing that he could not save his child. He says, "Abortion leaves a deep emotional wound on a father. The pain is sometimes overwhelming. There is shame, guilt, self-loathing, and hopelessness"(Jim). His personal testimony is just one of many that I read about. Each story has a common theme of feeling helpless in the decision. While some men feel that it is not their place to tell the woman which choice to make, they end up regretting their silence. Giving men legal rights will also give them the courage and support to stand up for themselves and their children. This will help reduce the number of abortions in general. If fathers are given the opportunity to take control and have a say in stopping an abortion then more fathers would be willing to speak up.

The father is losing the same child that the mother is losing and he often falls into depression. In most instances, we do not ask the father how he is feeling prior or post abortion. Contrary to this, the mother receives an excess of concern, support and guidance. It is important to realize that the father of the aborted child often feel an even larger sense of responsibility for what has happened to their child because of their inability to prevent it. Because they have no legal rights many men say that they feel a sense of helplessness and weakness by not being able to stop an abortion. This often leads to the fathers becoming isolated from their partners or future partners, falling into depression, experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder and more. In a study done by Coleman and Nelson involving post abortion emotions of men the results showed that, "51.6 % reported regret, 45.2% sadness, 25.8% depression, & 1/3 longing for the fetus". Most of these men also said that they would have liked to receive counseling if it had been offered. There are very few programs available for men today. Although there are only a few, the programs that are available are very efficient and effective for the men who are suffering. In 1997 Dr. Coyle performed an intervention study that was a forgiveness therapy program for men who were hurt by their partners' decision to abort their child. Before the therapy the men said they had, "frequent thoughts about the lost child, difficulty concentrating, anger, anxiety, grief, guilt, helplessness, relationship problems, and confusion about the man's role in society." After months of therapy the men were recorded to have far less anxiety, anger, and grief about the abortion.  Understanding that the father needs this support and rehabilitation is another step in the Father's Rights Movement progressing and achieving what they deserve.

Research shows that although men have no legal rights their opinions still weigh heavy on the decision of many women to abort. When asked why they had an abortion many women respond in some way that involves the father of the child. Many women say that they felt pressured because they did not think the father wanted the child, they felt trapped because the father left and the only answer was to not have the child, it was not the right time because the father could not provide for a larger family, etc.  Fathers seem to always be at least in some way part of the decision in a personal sense. However, even though these fathers are greatly impacting the mothers' decisions they do not have any legal rights in the matter. Why is it that women take the father's opinion into such great consideration yet legally they are given no voice?

In 1987 the Alan Guttmacher Institute at U.S. abortion facilities conducted a study asking women why they had abortions. This is what they found, "23% said their husband or partner wanted her to have an abortion, 68% said they could not afford a baby now, and 51% said they had problems with a relationship or wanted to avoid single parenthood" (Strahan 196). All of these reasons have to do with issues with the father, even the 68% that said it was a monetary issue. If the father was present or working they would most likely have enough money. I understand that there are situations where the father is not at all concerned as to what happens to the unborn child but in many cases they are. Men are influencing the decisions, not legally, but emotionally and personally of the women seeking an abortion. They should be given legal rights as fathers. It is not a situation between only the mother and her body when the father is clearly as influential as being shown.

The father is just as responsible for the conception of a child and is equally part of the child as the mother is. He, therefore,  should have equal legal rights a say whether or not his child will be aborted. A person's DNA is made up 50% from their mother and 50% from their father, making the child equally part of both the mother and the father. One does need to still consider that the woman is the only one capable of carrying a child and that the child is literally part of her for 9 months. The Supreme Court case of Planned Parenthood versus Danforth is one of many cases that prove fathers have no rights when it comes to abortion. Danforth was fighting for a law to be made requiring girls under 18 to need parental consent and for married women to have spousal consent before obtaining an abortion. The Court's ruling denied his proposal, leaving men with no rights. The Court's decision was made on the claim that requiring this of pregnant women was unconstitutional, "The Court upheld the requirement for written consent from the woman but concluded that spousal and parental consent requirements amounted to an unconstitutional "veto power" over a decision which should be left to the "medical judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician" according to Roe"("Planned Parenthood vs. Danforth 1976).

One of the most influential decisions made by the Supreme Court was that of Roe versus Wade in 1973. Roe was a single woman who was denied an abortion by the state of Texas and consequently sued the state saying she was being denied her constitutional rights.  This is a case that most people are familiar with. It is the case that changed the legality of abortion, largely in part to the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment is the right to privacy, so it was decided that the decision to have an abortion is a private matter between the mother and her body.  The general regulations that came about from this case allow abortions in the first trimester, allows for some regulation to abortion in the second trimester, and bans abortion after six months. This is the first court case dealing with abortion. Because Roe was a single woman the father was not part of discussion. Nowhere in this case does it speak of the father's rights. In fact, in all of the reading I did about this topic, the father is rarely ever mentioned. It is impossible to conceive a child without a woman and a man so it is strange that the man is left out of the conversation more than he is part of it. Once a child is born he is not considered more the mother's child than the father's. He is equally their child and responsibility.

One of the most interesting things that I came across while researching was Dr. Keith Ablow's article that spoke specifically and solely on the notion that fathers should have the right to veto the abortion of their child if they make a credible claim that they are the father of the developing child, that he could be a proper custodian of the child, and that he is willing to take full custody of the child once it is born. There would need to be a strict set of guidelines and qualifications that a father must meet before obtaining the right to veto. The ability to veto an abortion is a fairly new idea and all the aspects have not been worked out yet. The process of vetoing an abortion would need to be done in a very timely matter considering the child is growing every day. There comes a point when an abortion can no longer be performed if the woman is too far along. That's why this notion is so controversial; the specifics of this legal process would need to be very strict. If the father won the case full responsibility of the pregnancy and post pregnancy would be on him. The father would be responsible for paying hospital fees and other medical/pregnancy finances. Once born the child would be in full custody of the father and work similar to a closed adoption. This brings up the opposing side of the mother involved. Carrying a child to term only to give it up in the end can be emotionally and psychologically damaging for a woman. Some women argue that this idea is barbaric and falls into previous patterns of seeing and using women as baby makers. It could also be potentially life threatening to the woman if she was forced to wait until later on in her term to have an abortion or carrying to term. In response to sociologist Dalton Conley's "A Man's Right to Choose" essay, Carole Joffe, also a sociologist, responded commenting on the safety of the mother, "A first trimester abortion is more than ten times safer, in terms of maternal mortality, than carrying a pregnancy to term abortions".  There is also the question of will the father have the right to monitor and change the woman's behavior during the course of the pregnancy? Looking at it from this perspective makes it seem as though the mother would be subject to change her lifestyle at the whim of the father. While giving fathers the potential to veto the abortion of their child would be a positive step forward for men the effect it would have on the mother could be devastating. Fighting for the fathers' rights is such a politically incorrect idea because of the lack of women's' rights in history. People seem to be scared to say anything about this in fear of be accused of trying to take away women's rights. By not doing this we are taking away the father's rights. Not allowing men to be able to veto the abortion of their child is taking advantage of a man's reproductive ability. By this I mean that men are crucial in the process of creating new life, however once this new life is conceived the mother has full control over whether or not the child will be born. If the mother decides to carry the child to term then she also has the power to make sure the father will be present in the child's life in some form or another. In the process of conceiving and birthing a child the father is picked and chosen when he will need to be present. The mother and father are both present at conception, then the mother makes the decision to keep the child or not. The father's life changes based on what the mother chooses. We cannot, as Dr. Ablow says "be giving men the clear message that bringing new lives to the planet is the exclusive domain, and under the exclusive control, of women". 

Father's should be given legal rights to the lives of their unborn children. Even though he does not carry the child himself the way that the mother does, he is still very much a part of the child. Saying that men should be able to veto the abortion of their child is a request that many people will fight but I think it will lead to less abortions and give men the sense that they are more than just baby makers. It will encourage responsibility and change the way people think about abortions. It also gives mothers who are not ready to be parents an alternative solution to abortion or adoption. Men should be given this right because it not only promotes fatherhood, responsibility, and compromise, but also life.
