I had always assumed that if a man had gotten a woman pregnant, then if that pregnancy is carried to term, both partners should be financially responsible for the child regardless whether the man had wanted to have the child or not. The mindset being "they got them pregnant, so you have to face the consequences'".
I was talking with some people online, and they asserted that if the man did not want to have the child, then they should be able to apply to be resolved of any financial responsibility towards caring for it. I was at first against this proposal, but I feel like I now understand it better. Our current legislation was created at a time where abortion was tantamount to murder, and since it was illegal, an obligation of financial responsibility was the only way to ensure that women weren't stranded with children they couldn't afford to raise. But now that we live in a world where abortion is legal (for now), and where abortion procedures are safer than carrying the child to term, there doesn't seem to be a good argument for men still needing to be financially responsible for unwanted children. Men probably would still need to assist in paying for the procedure, but outside of that, I think they had a point. Please explain to me if there is anything I'm failing to consider here.
I also want to apologize for the binary language I used in writing this. I tried at first to write this in a more inclusive way, but I struggled wrapping my head around it. If anyone can educate me in how to write in a way that doesn't disclude non-binary comrades, I would appreciate it.
Women are more likely to be awarded child support, are awarded more money, and more likely to actually receive the money. Although this data is from 1991 so.
Edit: Here's numbers from 2011. If you do the math it figures to 53.4% of custodial mothers being awarded child support vs 28.8% of custodial fathers being awarded. So still the same idea.
Even if you only look at custodial parents who are below the poverty line*, it's still 50.04% vs 26.9%
* It seems custodial fathers have a higher average income, so only looking at below poverty controls for that. Also I think that means poorer fathers are less likely to be awarded custody in the first place.
Edit: And here's data from 2015, publish in 2018 and republished in 2020. 52.7% to 39.6%.
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So it's perfectly fine that men disproportionately get less child support than women? There's nothing wrong with the legal system enforcing the "women are the caretakers" gender role?
Those stats you cited are pretty clear evidence of a patriarchal system, which makes it funny when someone gets super triggered by those stats and inadvertently defends that same system (even though they purport to be against such a system).
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Are they untrue? Is it ok how the system works right now?
Believe it or not, we can use the same facts as the right to arrive at different conclusions. In fact, it's well documented that the right uses real inequalities as a springboard to radicalize people into hatred. It's also pretty obvious that liberals (or even the left) failing to address those inequalities makes it even easier for the right to radicalize people.
Can you really not tell the difference between:
and
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Whatever, you are actively avoiding understanding what my point is or how it comes from a leftist perspective. You apparently just don't want to address inequalities or the effects of existing gender roles.
Here's a leftist perspective on the issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/Socialism_101/comments/ixl9sc/socialist_views_on_financial_abortion/
Is the main post what I'm supposed to be reading? Or is there a specific comment?
Either way, this is talking purely about fathers financially supporting custodial mothers. That's fine, that can happen, though I agree some of the arguments used sound like pro-life arguments. My problem is that mothers financially supporting custodial fathers happens less often and usually in smaller amounts. It's a gender role based inequality that needs to be addressed.
I just happened upon that post searching about the issue and trying to educate myself. It seems there are differing opinions on the matter, that's all.
I mostly agree with that post, though I understand that one parent opting out financially isn't viable if the custodial parent doesn't have enough money to take care of the child. My main point is that custodial mothers and custodial fathers get different treatment for reasons soaked in shitty gender roles.
I mostly agree with it too. I've seen what years of child support can do to someone who didn't want the child (this happened to a cousin of mine who's otherwise a sweet guy, but just wasn't ready for the burden of fatherhood). I agree with you on the differing treatment as well. Hell I'm not that great with kids, but everyone assumes I'm "good with kids" because of my gender.
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What? Now I'm just confused. How are those not relevant?
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Talking points are not exclusive to one side. The same points can be and quite often are used to draw very different conclusions. The quality and validity of the conclusions drawn don't affect the validity of the initial points. You aren't critiquing, or really even acknowledging, the conclusions I'm drawing. Instead you are focused the unrelated conclusions of people who will never be on this site.
Why do you allistics have to be so fucking thick?
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Because you fucking allistics refuse to understand what I'm saying.
You think a trend that didn't change much in the 20 year span between 1991 and 2011 suddenly changed in the last 9 years? Here's results from 2015 reaffirmed by the Census Bureau in 2018 (and then re-released again in 2020), a little better (52.7% to 39.6%), but still disproportionate. Sorry the census bureau doesn't make these reports as often as you'd like.
I hate to sound like the annoying Ben Shapiro here, but facts don't care about your feelings lol.