Does the home DNA Paternity Test – Identigene DNA Paternity product – represent a step forward for men? Would the requirement of a DNA paternity test for every birth create a change in women’s sexual behavior?

“Men should have the right to decline paternity in cases of unintended conception in the same way women have had that right for over thirty years. To support men’s family planning rights Matt Dubay is courageously taking on the Michigan Family Court in the effort to take control of his reproductive rights.” (www.nationalcenterformen.org – March 25, 2008)

In principle, men should not be forced to parent a child they do not want. But, because of the unbalanced social norms of how men and women relate to babies, men will continue to be required by law “to parent a child” in unintended pregnancy cases. The majority persist that if men do not want children they ought to use a condom, undergo a vasectomy or create a legal agreement at the start of a relationship with his (new) partner as to what they will both do about an “unintended pregnancy.” (A handful of women really believe that men have 50% control in whether his partner becomes pregnant (unintentionally.)

First, establishing a legal agreement between partners is easier said than done. In the United States State and Federal family court systems there is “no legal precedence or court recognition for hypothetical legal agreements between partners.”

Second, although there is such a thing as a vasectomy reversal operation, this procedure is only 57% effective, is quite expensive and is rarely (if never) covered by insurance.

Lastly, there is the condom dispute. Condoms are used mostly when people change partners, are in a new relationship; and seldom used when couples are in a trusted/marital relationship. When someone is in a relationship for a couple of years, we’d imagine that couples have established a mature, trusting relationship with their wife so that men would not have to worry about fatherhood, and could rely on his partner to take the pill until they have both communicated with understanding and agreement about extending or starting a family. (Men do not have the pill option.)

Condoms’ is the one contraceptive method for men and oftentimes a poor method. Condoms break even when it’s used correctly. Condoms also have a failure rate of 15%, which means that for every one hundred couples using condoms correctly (and most do not) 15% “unintended pregnancies” will occur. The failure rate for imperfect condom use increases to 20%, which is as effective as the withdrawal method.

When this happens, you often hear women (and public advocates) claim that “men decline paternity time and again and women get struck with the child.” In truth, men in the United cannot legally refuse paternity allegations even if they want to. And still, women are legally afforded unlimited opportunities to decline paternity while pregnant and after the child is born.

However, if he chooses to deny paternity he will very likely receive a summons to appear in court, forced to submit to DNA testing and further forced to accept paternity of an unintended conception. This obligation includes but is not limited to child support payments, which is approximately 17% of his income, and in most states in this country. The percentage is higher of course, depending on the income of both parents, the cost for day care, medical expenses, and the child’s education if the mother decides to enroll the child in a private school. As well, and in most states, once the biological father is determined in court, he is held responsible for 100% of the medical birthing costs if the mother is uninsured at the time of labor. That’s the law. Yet, people (and certain organizations) are quick to judge and classify men as deadbeats. The child support enforcement agency is a pitiful state agency. They are the ones who jump at men and probably the ones who started the deadbeat dad epidemic in the United States. In truth, there isn’t an epidemic of deadbeat fathers who abandon their children or deny support. The epidemic lies between the child support enforcement agencies and the family court’s unfair, unrealistic and financially crippling requirements of fathers.

(A man can be declared the father of a child if the biological father cannot be found; despite the fact that this means the mother’s having sex with someone else. To child support agencies, their concern is that “a man” pays for the child and the Court of (family) Law is mainly concerned about the Federal dollars on child support.)

Abandonment legislation was passed in most states because of the high rate of infanticide during the early 1980s. (www.pbs.org) Abandonment legislation legally permits a mother to anonymously abandon her newborn baby at police stations, fire stations and in some states, at the public library. In the United States, a mother isn’t required to notify, discuss or ask permission from the child’s biological father if she makes the decision to abandon “his” child.

Women in the United States are never left stuck with a child. Women choose to bring her unborn child to full term accepting legal paternal responsibilities. Women in this country are never forced with legal paternity, at least not in the last thirty years. However, forced parenthood happens to hundreds of men all the time, every day.

Also in the United States, women rarely, if ever, have to go through such lengths as men must to ensure against unintended paternity. Perhaps this is the reason why 70% of all annual pregnancies in this country are unintended. Compare this to the failure rate of the most popular pill method for women, and is 99% effective.

What century are we living in? Are men not entitled to enjoy really effective male contraceptives as much as women have been enjoying, while in the same breath having the option to select the best contraceptive on the market for her? Are men not entitled to have, at minimum, the same legal paternity rights as women have had for so many years?

“Justice delayed is (truly) justice denied, and slavery by any other name is still slavery. Women have reproductive rights. Men have reproductive responsibilities.”

CORNERSTONE
Charlie Chaplin was a victim of paternity fraud in the 1940s. The British film actor was prosecuted in 1944 by Federal authorities for “Mann Act” charges. Although Chaplin was eventually acquitted of the paternity fraud charges the trial not only destroyed his public image in the United States, but because of the high profile case, despite the acquittal, Chaplin had to depart for Switzerland in the 1950s.

It’s about 60 years since the Chaplin case and today, paternity fraud is a bigger problem than in the 1940s, and despite DNA testing.

REFERENCES
The Phil Donahue Show – “Are Women Getting a Free Ride?”
“Judge David Hanschen lets men challenge whether the kids they support are theirs, and the Texas Attorney General’s office is pissed.” (www.dallasobserver.com – April 2, 2008)
“In 1910, Congress passed the Mann Act as a means of addressing the problem of prostitution, which makes it a federal crime to transport prostitutes across state lines. (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act - Also known as the white slave traffic act)
“One of the landmarks of Progressive Era legislation was the White Slave Traffic Act, better known as the Mann Act.” (www.pbs.org)
The proposed Mann Act expansion will also hurt people who truly are victims of human trafficking. (www.feministing.com/June 9, 2008)
“Paternity Fraud is deliberate. Male economic slavery in the United States, Judge Judy denounces Paternity Fraud.” (www.mensrightsblogs.com/feeds/paternity and www.parenting-weblog.com)
“Trapping men in financial slavery and obligations . . .” (www.dontmakehermad.com/news