Paper Abortion

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Paper abortion, also known as a financial abortion or a statutory abort, is the proposed ability of the biological father, before the birth of the child, to opt out of any rights, privileges, and responsibilities toward the child, including financial support. By this means, before a child is born, a man would be able to absolve himself of both the privileges and demands of fatherhood.

Debate and public attention

Support

In a 1996 article "Abortion and Fathers' Rights," philosopher Steven Hales made an argument that presupposes the following assertions:

  1. That women have an absolute right to abortion on demand;
  2. That men and women have equal moral rights and duties and should have equal legal right and duties; and
  3. That parents have a moral duty to support their children once they are born and legal duties of support should supervene on this moral duty.

Hales contends that the conjunction of these three principles is prima facie inconsistent and that this inconsistency should be eradicated by firstly acknowledging that men have no absolute duty to provide material support for their children, and secondly by admitting that fathers have the right of refusal.

Laurie Shrage, professor of philosophy and women’s and gender studies, questions whether men should be 'penalized for being sexually active', and she puts the subject in the perspective of feminists who had to fight the same idea with different gender portent, namely that consenting to sexual intercourse is not the same as consenting to parenthood. Furthermore, both men and children are punished, according to professor Shrage; children have to live with an absent father who never 'voluntarily' became a parent.

[If] women’s partial responsibility for pregnancy does not obligate them to support a fetus, then men’s partial responsibility for pregnancy does not obligate them to support a resulting child.

— Elizabeth Brake in the Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2005

At most, according to Brake, men should be responsible for helping with the medical expenses and other costs of a pregnancy for which they are partly responsible.

Opposition

Paper abortion has met opposition by those who see it as an excuse for men to shirk their responsibilities as a father. Critics say that men should use birth control (either contraception or sterilization) or practice abstinence if they want to avoid the financial and personal responsibilities of fatherhood. Critics also argue that a father's paper abortion is different from a female abortion since a child is born. Thus the best interests of the child should weigh more than equal opportunity to deny parenthood.

By country

Denmark

The concept of a paper abortion was first introduced in Denmark in 2000 by the socioeconomicist Henrik Platz. He says that it is necessary from an egalitarian perspective, to ensure that women and men have equal rights under the law. According to a Gallup poll from 2014 and earlier polls, between 40% and 70% of Danes agree with legalizing paper abortion.

Sociologist Karen Sjørup, who conducted research on the topic argues that it would give women more freedom by allowing those who want to become mothers without having to share the rights and duties of parenthood with men an additional way to do so. She also suggests that it could decrease the abortion rate because it would prevent men who wished to avoid fatherhood from pressuring women to abort.

Advocates argue that just as women are able to choose whether to have a child or not, men should also be able to choose whether to assume paternity or not. Allowing men to have the opportunity to renounce the economic, social and legal responsibility for an unborn child during the first three months of pregnancy would give men and women as close to equal opportunities as possible.

Sweden

In 2016, a regional branch of the Swedish Liberal Youth Party decided to support paper abortion for men until the 18th week of pregnancy, the time limit on abortions for women. The proposition was supported by some commentators, but not by the LYP's parent party.

United States

See also