Abortion violates the Human Rights of Fathers

Fathers1Right to Life is concerned at the glaring imbalance that exists in law, in regard to the rights of men to defend the lives of the children they have fathered. Fatherhood commences at conception. Children in the womb, just like children who have been born, have a right to the love and protection of their father. Fathers have an inalienable right to protect their children. Our abortion law cruelly silences and rejects fathers, violating their human rights. Fathers are amongst the many silent victims of abortion.

New Zealand abortion law discriminates against fathers because it makes no provision whatsoever for their having a say in whether their child will be allowed to be born. It allows for the murder of their children at the sole decision of the mothers. There is no requirement for fathers to be consulted or even informed of the murder of their children. That the law does not recognise the father’s right to protect his child from being killed is one of the most an appalling violation of human rights in our country.

Why does society condone and ignore the grief and pain of fathers who are prohibited from preventing the murder of their child?

It is unjust that the law ignores the rights of the father to protect his child in the womb, yet if it is born, he becomes immediately responsible to provide maintenance to the mother for eighteen years. There is something seriously wrong here.

In the United States, Ohio Republican state legislator, representative John Adams, has recently introduced a bill that requires written permission from an unborn baby’s biological father before an abortion. The legislation has more than a dozen co-sponsors. The bill is vigorously opposed by Planned Parenthood. It is believed that if a similar bill was presented to our Parliament it would be strongly opposed by Family Planning. A Gallop poll in the United States in 2003 revealed that 72 per cent of those polled supported the father being advised and a poll in 2002 revealed that only 38 per cent of those polled were opposed to fathers being required to authorise an abortion.

There are a number of countries that have paternal consent laws for abortion, including Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Syria and Turkey.

Our community is full of wounded and damaged fathers who need spiritual healing. Studies reveal that even when the father supports the abortion of his child, there are serious psychological consequences including anger, a feeling of helplessness, depression, frustration and guilt through his failure to protect his child and the mother. If the father is married, it violates the trust and bond that exists between spouses. It could result in the father failing to bond with future children because of his failure to protect his formerly aborted child.

Right to Life supports the rights of fathers to protect their children from being killed before birth and will work to achieve justice for men who are also the victims of the murder of the innocent. We call on fathers to oppose the current legislation and to work towards promoting laws which will protect the rights of fathers to defend the life of their unborn children.

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