What if He Isn't The Only One?

Since it is solely the mother's responsibility to nurture the child during her pregnancy--and, in realistic terms, her primary responsibility after its birth--logically, the decision must ultimately be hers. The father may obviously have some stake in the decision, but this may not necessarily be the case; giving fathers a legal right to participate in the decision assumes that the relationship is a monogamous one, which may not always be the case (Balis).

That is definitely something to think about. Who's to say that the man doesn't have many partners? What about the woman? She is not void of such situations. ABC News did a poll on this issue and other sex topics. The results for number of partners is as follows:

Total Number of Sex Partners

• # of Partners --- All --- Men --- Women
  
  
• One ----------------- 19% ---- 12 ------- 25
• 2-4 ------------------- 25 ------ 16 ------- 35
• 5-10 ----------------- 28 ------ 26 ------- 29
• 11-20 ---------------- 12 ------- 18 ------- 6
• 21+ ------------------ 12 ------- 20 ------- 4

Although the numbers change drastically as the number of partners increases (compare 5-10 and 11-20), there is still a large number of women that are with multiple partners. Due to that fact, we cannot assume that either participant is practicing monogamy.

Here's something to think about: What if the man is monogamous and is unaware that his girlfriend has multiple partners? If she becomes pregnant, and a DNA test determines that it is his, should he be responsible for the next 18 years? I don't think so. If, by participating in the act of sex, there is an unspoken agreement that a pregnancy could occur, and if so each partner is responsible for that child, why then, if she has multiple partners, should he be the only one accountable? The belief that there is this unspoken agreement is the backbone of the argument for men being financially accountable for a baby resulting from consensual sex.

This is where I believe the system fails. If the woman has multiple partners during her pregnancy, she raises the risk of harming the baby by contracting an STD. If the partner that gives her the STD is not the biological father, he is off the hook. The biological father is now financially responsible for the baby that has possibly many medical issues the least being a premature birth (babymed.com).