Elle Examines Efforts To Increase Male Reproductive Rights

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Abortion;  Men's health;  Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 20 May 2010 - 3:00 PDT


In Elle magazine on Monday, writer Stephanie Fairyington examined efforts to expand men's legal rights in cases where a sex partner becomes pregnant and the two disagree on whether to carry the pregnancy to term or have an abortion. Fairyington focuses on the experiences of Greg Bruell, whose ex-girlfriend, Sandra Hedrick, sued him for child support after she decided to continue a pregnancy he did not support. The couple previously agreed that she would have an abortion if their birth control method failed.

After Hendrick sued him, Bruell sought out Mel Feit, founder of the National Center for Men, and "volunteered to become the next poster boy for male reproductive rights," Fairyington writes. Feit believes "men's lack of reproductive rights, combined with unfair child support laws," amounts to "discrimination encouraged by the state," according to Fairyington.

In 2007, Feit lost a separate case -- which he labeled Roe v. Wade for Men -- that argued men's lack of a right to make an abortion decision violates the Equal Protection Clause. Therefore, Feit reasoned, men cannot be considered liable to financially support a child they did not want. After the plaintiff in the case opted against an appeal, Bruell told Feit that he would take up the cause, but Bruell later changed his mind after reaching a child support arrangement with Hedrick.

Fairyington notes that a number of men and women have "taken heat" over the years in attempts to expand male reproductive rights. According to Fairyington, in a 2005 New York Times op-ed titled "A Man's Right To Choose," Daltron Conley of New York University wrote "a passionate rumination on the value of making fathers and fatherhood more relevant by giving men greater reproductive rights," arguing "that women could be enjoined by the courts to continue (or end) a pregnancy." Conley, who supports Roe, was surprised to find that his piece "infuriated his feminist colleagues," and he has since backed away from the argument, Fairyington says.

Although "it's hard not to be sympathetic with pro-choice advocates who rank male reproductive rights low on the priority list, ... it seems dicey for women to argue that our distinct biology gives us special rights, considering our long history of being discriminated against based on that same biology," Fairyington continues. However, she also concedes that expanding men's legal role in abortion decisions would create practical challenges and possible negative ramifications for women's rights (Fairyington, Elle, 5/17).

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