The Verdict From RWN’s Readers: Women Shouldn’t Be Able To Have An Abortion Without Getting The Father’s Permission Or A Court Order

13 Mar, 2008 by John Hawkins

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Yesterday, I ran an abortion poll on RWN. The question was as follows, “Is there such a thing as men’s rights when it comes to abortion?”

Here’s how it broke out with just over 500 responses,

No, the father of the baby should have no say in whether a woman gets an abortion: 8%

Yes, the woman should not be able to have an abortion without the consent of the baby’s father or a court order: 92%

This isn’t just a RWN phenomenon either. Over at Wizbang, they ran a similar poll. Here are the results,

Should men be able to halt an abortion if they want to keep the baby?

Yes; it’s half his: 79%
No; but he should be notified: 12%
No; it isn’t his body and it’s misogyny to say he should be able to: 5%
I don’t know; it’s too sticky a situation: 5%

I’d like to see some more polling of the general population to see what they think about this, but I think this could be a real opportunity for those of us who are pro-life.

Let’s say that we pushed laws that said a woman couldn’t have an abortion without the signed approval of the father of her baby or a court order — which is only fair. Then, if the woman had an abortion and a DNA test proved that the “father” who signed off wasn’t the right guy, the woman would be hit with fraud charges and the real father could sue her for damages — imagine how much of an impact that would have on the number of abortions in the country.

It wouldn’t put an end to abortion, but it would help make them much more safe, legal, and rare — which is what everyone says that they want, right?