NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/alt/activism/18993

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-19 | 5.7 KB

From: [e-mail] (Kingsley Morse)
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 22:09:02 GMT
Subject: Re: A proposal for reproductive freedom for BOTH sexes
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Organization: HP Western Response Center
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Newsgroups: alt.activism
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In alt.activism, [e-mail] (Karl Denninger) writes:

> What I envision is a law which provides all of the following:

> 1)    Provides a declaration of a woman's right to choose up to the 12th
>     week of pregnancy whether or not to have an abortion -- as a federal
>     law.  Not on privacy grounds -- but on ownership of one's body.

Sounds good to me. My understanding is that polls show the pro-choice position
has a little more popular support than pro-life. With more women politicians,
I expect this position will have more support in political circles.

I've read of a similar reproductive freedom bill in Washington D.C. already.
Perhaps we could offer to support that if it includes our changes. The first
step would be to determine the bill's sponsors. Any Rep or Senator should
have admin assistants who can find out.

> 1.5)    Provides a declaration that in the event that a woman does not want
>     to keep a child, but also does not wish to abort for any reason, may
>     place said child up for adoption at birth.  The male parent shall
>     have the right of first refusal to adopt a child produced in this
>     circumstance.

Also good. I like the idea of giving the other spouse the right of first
refusal, and I feel it is only fair to give this right to both sexes.

> 2)    Provides a declaration that >men< have the right, up to the 12th
>     week of pregnancy of a women that they are the father, to state
>     whether or not they want the rights and responsibilities of the
>     foetus in-utereo.  Include a provision that should the pregnancy be
>     concealed from the man, that he has 30 days from the date of
>     discovery to declare his intentions.

Yes! This is my pet peeve. The National Center For Men hopes to petition
Federal Court to give men the right to relinquish their parental rights
and responsibilities. There's some talk of filing the papers on the 20th
anniversary of Roe v. Wade. An attorney on the east coast has agreed
to handle the case "pro-bono" (almost for free), and we're looking for an
attorney to file similar papers on the west coast at the same time. We hope
to garner media attention by filing on both coasts at the same time. If you'd
like to help, call Joe Applebaum at [phone].

I think item 1.5 above, and item 2 share a certain symmetry. Perhaps we could
consolidate these items into one, gender simpler, neutral item.

I would also like to legislate that people who sued their partners for child
support, and thus forced them into parenthood, be made to *repay* the child
support they received, with interest.

>     Rights (1) and (2) are to apply >regardless< of the marital status
>     of the parties.  (Should married parties disagree on these points
>     there may not be a marriage shortly thereafter)

Good.

> 3)    Provides a declaration that in custody cases, and in the event of
>     a split of a present-case family unit, that both parties will be
>     presumed to be equally capable of parenting, and that the split
>     shall be 50-50 with regards to custody.  Further, the default
>     support award shall be >zero< (since both parents have the
>     responsibility half the time, they both inherently bear half the
>     costs).  In particular, repeal the "tender years" doctrine at
>     the federal level and require proof by preponderance of the
>     evidence that a parent is >unsuitable< -- not "less suitable" --
>     before the default custody split of 50-50 is modified.

Sounds good to me, and I suspect our courts are still too sexist to deal
with this. I can only hope.

> 4)    Provide a declaration that any allegation of abuse made by one
>     parent or another which is proven false and baseless shall be:
>     1)    A class X felony (similar to dealing narcotics)
>     2)    Immediately cause the accusing person to be ineligible to
>         receive further custody of children in said dispute.

Good.

> 5)    Provide that interference with custody arrangements of any kind
>     by a parent is grounds for immediate loss of custody of the child(ren)
>     affected, and is additionally a federal felony.  This is intended to
>     prevent situations where parents "impound" their children against a
>     court order or in the hopes of "swinging" a custody dispute.

I've read that denying visitation is already a felony in at least one state,
Indiana, I think.

> Anyone want to join in on this one and see if we can get some legislative
> action on this proposal at a federal level?

Count me in.

Strategy. IMHO, we need to contact the sponsors of the existing reproductive
freedom bill in Washington D.C., and ask them if they're looking for
voter support. If they're seeking voters to to ask legislators to vote
for the bill, we could offer our support if they implement some or all of
our ideas. Our colleagues should include:

Men's Rights Inc. (1000 people of the mailing list, if I recall, might be 7000)
National Center for Men
Planned Parenthood
The plethora of pro-choice organizations
People who send email to Karl


            Action plan:
1.) get phone # of local rep and senator
2.) call them and ask them to send detailed history of the existing bill to us
3.) collect support for our ideas. we need organizations with mailing lists,
    phone trees, newsletters, etc that can reach people who'll call
    legislators.
4.) negotiate with the bill's authors to include our views. if they do fine,
    if not, we submit our own bill