Further, with the development of DNA testing and the Child Support Act of 1988, the possibility of evading financial responsibility for children has been increasingly foreclosed. Substantial proportions of men find themselves forced to become fathers and assume substantial financial responsibility for the children. The Nov. 23 Washington Post, for instance, reported on a lawsuit in which a man is suing a woman for becoming pregnant against his will. She had promised to take birth control pills, he says. The woman claims she became pregnant accidentally.
Men deserve the same right.
A recent study of reasons noncustodial fathers give for not paying child support indicated that 25 percent either were not the father or did not want the child to be born. It seems clear that gender equality will have to be achieved in the family. This means that men will have the same right to decide whether to assume the rights and responsibilities of fatherhood that women have and that they have equal rights to custody. It also means that the rights and obligations of both parents to support and care for their children will be enforced with equal stringency. Women who do not notify the father of their child should face penalties - perhaps for violating his civil rights.