One of the toughest challenges of being a pro-life male is hearing pro-abortion advocates constantly telling us that if men could get pregnant or if men were made to pay child support for the pregnancy, abortion would be allowed in all 50 states. Typically, this kind of ignorance shows that while pro-life people can understand and even articulate the arguments of the pro-abortion crowd, pro-abortion advocates cannot do the same for pro-life activists.
In all actuality, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to men and pregnancy. The point of the pro-life movement isn’t simply about adding some undue burden on women. It’s the sanctity of life from birth to natural death. And with that belief comes the belief that for life to be fully celebrated, a strong family unit is required and that the personal responsibility of seeing to the child’s best interests are met.
In order to ensure all of that to the best of our ability, we as a society need to better recognize that, like life, fatherhood begins at conception.
There is a bill heading to the floor of the Louisiana House of Representatives, for example, that shows pro-lifers in the Bayou State get it.
The House Civil Law and Procedure Committee moved forward a bill that would allow mothers to recuperate half of the out-of-pocket, pregnancy-related medical expenses from the father of their child.
After the baby is born, the mother would have two years to recover these expenses, which would not include costs covered by insurance. Under present law, women have no avenue for this action.
“I think this is a very good bill to really help the pregnant women in our state who have no way to recover these medical expenses,” said Rep. Lawrence “Larry” Frieman, R-Abita Springs, the bill’s author.
The bill requires that paternity be proven by clear and convincing evidence, with the burden of proof requiring paternity to be more likely true than untrue.
Part of being conservative is the understanding that, while you have certain freedoms and liberties, they come with the understanding that you are also personally responsible for using them wisely. Failure to do so will land you in prison (or worse). It’s a system built on accountability, which is a good thing. So, like anything else, if you engage in sex, you should be held accountable for the consequences of sex, and that includes the creation of new life.
This bill allows a woman the time to recuperate the costs of a pregnancy if the father of the child is otherwise a no-show. Ideally, yes, you would want the father to be more involved child’s life than as just a financial supporter from a distance, but this allows the mother to have a better chance of raising her child by either granting her the financial resources she might otherwise have missed out on or by encouraging fathers that they need to be more than a source of revenue.
Both pro-life and pro-abortion groups in the state agree that this is the appropriate next step to take, because it puts the mother and the child first. But, beyond that, it is a reminder to men that we have a responsibility to be a part of our child’s life. Being pro-life is being pro-family, and we need to be encouraging the model of the family we know works best – a model that favors the traditional arrangement of a two-parent household. Particularly when those two parents are loving mothers and fathers.
We have a duty to continue pushing for legislation like this across the country, to make sure that fathers are held responsible and, at minimum, continue to support their children no matter what that looks like. But there is no doubt that fatherhood begins the moment a new life is created, and that the pro-life movement needs to continue to reinforce that idea.
