Do Men Really have Equal Rights?

It is a question I really never thought of until recently. It was just jast week, in fact, that I was sitting in a court room waiting for my 18 year old son’s hearing to end. He was taken to court to pay child support for a child he did not want and did not agree to have, who he was, in fact, tricked into fathering by a dishonest young woman. Unfortunately, he was the “winner” of the paternity test (We were told it could have been one of three boys). I told my son he wasn’t a winner at all, because being the winner of the DNA test he just lost everything that he doesn’t even have yet.

While waiting in the filled court room, I sat there alone with my thoughts and worries about what was about to happen. Since he is 18 years old, I wasn’t allowed to sit with him. He is considered an adult in the eyes of the court. An 18 year old boy with braces on his teeth, a sweet smile, and who still enjoys watching cartoons in the morning. As an adult, he is uneducated, underemployed, and naive enough to be duped by a pretty girl; damn, he doesn’t even have his driver’s license yet.

Millions of things were going through my head that day, but I was mainly thinking that I just wanted it to be over. Perhaps to escape, I was daydreaming about things I would rather be doing whenI heard his name being called.

And just like that the judge orders him to pay $759.46 per month plus $10,000 retro for the first year, plus court fees. I shook my head thinking I must have fallen asleep and was now in a nightmare. I had to gather myself together. I then whispered to an older man sitting beside me. “Did she just say $759.00 a month?” The man turned to me and said, “Yes, that dude must have a whole bunch of kids.”

Sitting there in a room full of strangers, all from different walks of life, I felt more helpless than I have ever felt before. I felt powerless to defend my child. I stood up quickly and yelled “wait a minute there must be a mistake,” though I think I remember uttering some swear words in the process. I said,” this is wrong, how can this happen? “ My son only works part time if he is lucky. He hardly makes enough money to survive himself. Now he was just ordered to pay this much a month for a child he never agreed to have?

There was yelling from the bench and I was ordered to sit down and be quite. I continued to demand an explanation. The judge pounded her gavel on the bench and ordered me out of her court room. I turned to my son son and said, ” let’s go. ” The judge shouted back at me, ” He is not going anywhere- I am not done with him yet. He leaves when I tell him to leave.” As two deputies were walking towards me, I replied to her, ” You are more than done with him. He is coming with me. Go ahead and try to stop me.” I looked at my son and he looked scared to death; not sure which one of us he should listen too.

Where are his rights?

A woman has the right to abort, adopt, or abandon her baby and there are no consequences for her decisions. A woman can have an abortion and no one can force her to keep the baby regardless of the father’s feelings. A woman is allowed to leave her baby in a safe place and walk away with no questions asked. A woman has the right to give her child up for adoption. It’s wonderful our country gives woman such liberties. I am a woman and I am grateful I have these rights.

Why aren’t men given these same rights?

Why are men forced to be fathers when they don’t want to be? Why are men forced to pay child support for a child they did not want to have? Why are men allowed to be tricked into being a father? Why are men being punished for having sex?

There are many women who have lied or tricked the man so she would get pregnant. Because she wants a baby to love her, and she wants someone else to pay for it. Where is the woman’s responsibility? Shouldn’t we, as women, be responsible for our own bodies? Shouldn’t that come with all these rights we have? Shouldn’t we be the ones to reap the consequences if we get pregnant while we are single? I hear it so often about unwed women saying they are against abortion for religious reasons. Well, what about them having sex before getting married? They weren’t thinking about God then- were they?

Feminism claims to promote the idea that women have the same equal rights as men.

From Wikipedia ~ In the subsequent decades women’s rights again became an important issue in the English speaking world. By the 1960s the movement was called “feminism” or “women’s liberation.” Reformers wanted the same pay as men, equal rights in law, and the freedom to plan their families or not have children at all.

OK, if this is all about equality, then where are men’s reproductive rights?

I want to see CHANGE, and I am prepared to fight for it. We need equal rights to be equal for both men and women. The system is unfair. Furthermore, the ridiculously high child support orders on impoverished men in this country is a form of slavery. And that is exactly what the courts are doing to my young son. They are turning him into a slave- and allowing the woman who deceived him become his master- his owner.

Courts that are supposed to find just solutions are now the main cause of the problem. The child support orders not only set financial expectations too high to meet, but it also forces young men to become criminals, and some even commit suicide. We criminalizing an entire class of human beings, and ignoring the real criminals who are behind all this.

Women can get off their butts, put their children in daycare, and get a job.

As long as we have “My body, my choice,” shouldn’t we also have “my responsibility,” as well?

Beth Lang is an American mother whose son was duped into becoming a father without his consent. Because of this, she has decided to dedicate her life to publicly challenging the corrupt system that enables the fraud. Her efforts to advocate on behalf of her son and all young men will be chronicled exclusively here, at avoiceformen.com.