Another child support angle: Say a married (or similar) couple has kids and gets divorced. It's common for the mother to get full custody and the father to have to pay child support, or less often, vice versa. I've heard it argued that someone who cannot support the child on their own should not get full custody. The child should spend only as much time with them as they are able to support the child, and the other parent won't pay child support because they're supporting the child the rest of the time.
There's some pros to that argument, but also some problems (for example, what if one parent is abusive or doesn't want to spend time with the kid, etc).
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Originally Posted by Angela  And I hope that the thread doesn't get derailed into a debate on abortion rights -- that would be for a different thread. |
Yes, it's intertwined in some ways but not in others.
Ways in which abortion legality is irrelevant...
1) Supposing no one was allowed to have an abortion, the topic is still applicable, because a woman can still give up her parental responsibilities by putting the baby up for adoption while the man cannot give up his parental responsibilities in the even that she decides to keep it. Still not fair to the man.
2) Some people think abortion is wrong but should not be illegal; I think (not sure) most pro-choice people fit this description despite what most pro-lifers think. Surely everyone agrees it's bad for abortion to be forced upon a person, and no one thinks that abortions should be the solution in 100% of the cases where the man doesn't feel like paying child support.
But some people (who are surely all pro-choice, but not all pro-choice are these kind of people) can't help but equate a woman wanting to keep a conceived but unborn baby she is unable or unwilling to pay for to, say, a person who wants a car they are unwilling or unable to pay for. If you can't afford it, tough luck; no one else should have to foot the bill. Pass on it now and get a different car/baby in the future when you're in a better condition. Any argument against this (unborn babies are people too) happen to be the same arguments you'd use if you were trying to argue that abortion should be illegal.
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And if a man believes that a baby's rights trump its mothers -- that a woman does not have the right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy -- then for that man to put his penis anywhere near the vagina of a woman who believes otherwise is the epitome or irresponsibility.
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What about those rare cases when someone changes their mind on abortion? I did once.