Might Be a Father, Sure Ain't a Dad

The National Center for Men filed suit in Michigan today on behalf of a 25-year-old computer programmer ordered to pay child support for a daughter he sired against his will with an ex-girlfriend. They’re trying to say his constitutional right to equal protection under the law is being denied because he could not legally opt out of having a baby while she could have.

Putting aside for a moment the fact that this lawsuit will go nowhere, the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment applies to the law, not biology. When men grow uteri and start carrying children to term, then we’ll talk about equal protection. I suppose this guy thinks the state should support his offspring when he belatedly "declines" paternity, too.

Actually, men already do have ways to opt out of paternity. To start with, this guy could've (and probably should've) gotten a vasectomy. Barring that, he also had the option of not placing his penis into this woman's vagina.

It doesn’t matter if a woman tells you she can’t get pregnant, as the woman in this case allegedly did. It doesn’t matter if the condom breaks. It doesn’t matter if she thought she wanted an abortion and now she doesn't. It doesn’t matter if she thought she wanted a baby and now she doesn’t. Once she's pregnant, she's driving and you're along for the ride.

If a man can’t handle that, he should stay home and handle himself instead.