Rights we never had: male reproductive rights

This is something I've been bitching about ever since it occurred to me that I might one day get a girl pregnant. Mostly its just something for me to bitch about when I've had too much to drink, much like the nature of sports. Apparently now someone is bitching for real.

Executive summary: geeks knocks up a girl (i'm still getting over the "geek gets girl to fuck him" part), after having been told by the girl she couldn't have kids (Fellas, how many times have we heard that one?), and doesn't want to pay child support. Leaving aside for a moment the "stupid tax" this guy ought to have to pay, and the fact that his genes really don't belong in the pool in the first place, should a guy have a right to absolve himself of the legal obligations, given that women (for now at least) have the option of terminating the pregnancy or giving the baby up for adoption?

In the article there's a quote that admits that this is mainly a symbolic suit that will likely be thrown out of court. And in all seriousness, this is a totally shitty way to handle it. But the question is still there: why do women get to hold all the cards here? The rhetoric I always got from the Church (yes, i did once go) was that "You make the choice when you have sex, not after," and the article points out the options available to men--condoms and sterilization. That still doesn't answer the question of why a woman has the right to be the sole maker of a decision that will affect not only her own life but that of the biological father. Especially in today's world in which women actually have more options than men on birth control (there are no reversible sterilization procedures like taking birth control pills or implanting an IUD for men), I have to say that the equity argument does have some validity that ought to be discussed.

Finally, however, there is a dark side to this debate: what about when the man wants the woman to keep the baby, but she doesn't want to? Cases like this have already made it through the courts with the results being largely that the fathers get no say in stopping an abortion--nor, I believe, should they. But its not really equitable that they're forced to become a parent against their will either, especially not when a woman can stop that train before it leaves the station.

I don't know how this one is ultimately going to be resolved, and for once, I'm not sure how I think it ought to be. I do know that while I generally trust someone I'm sleeping with, I don't just take their word for it that they're on the Pill. Safe sex is safe sex, gentlemen.