Thank you for this. People always forget about the father in these situations. I have heard my own horror stories. But most men who experience this do not speak out, because they believe what society says - that it is all the woman's choice. So they feel embarrassed or uncomfortable disagreeing with the mother.

This is a tragedy for the baby of course.

But in light of the current legal situation today, this young man is not blameless. Why did he get someone pregnant without having the commitment of marriage and the blessing of her parents? Words that I don't understand are "Planned to have a baby with his girlfriend."

I don't mean to minimize the loss. However, it's hard to rustle that much sympathy up for the young man in this situation. All mine goes to the baby that got trapped in the middle and lost.

The fact that they weren't married is irrelevant to the point of this article. The girl could have had an abortion without his consent whether they were married or not.

Irish Freckles makes a good point, but I beg kindly to disagree, in part.

True enough, they could have been married, and the unjust law would still have permitted the woman to procure an abortion. But the abortion license has always had the destruction of the family and of fatherhood in its sights, and in order to compass that, the pro-abortionists have always had to run down the very idea of virtue as it applies to human sexuality. It's so bad now, that any notion that one's body is not one's own to dispose of as one pleases (and it most certainly is not one's own; that very position destroys any possibility for social order, even on the natural level) is regarded as absurd, even by so-called conservatives. The man in question is no hero. Yes, he has been mightily abused by a wicked law. He might try, while he is fighting that law, learning a thing or two about temperance and purity. Last time I checked, zippers don't unzip themselves.

That said, I sense that these days men are, if anything, more willing to hear these lessons than women are. If true, it's evidence of general ruin. But women, more than men, have been sold the line that their bodies are theirs. No Christian can believe this, and frankly, no good ancient Stoic could believe it, either. I may be wrong about the comparison between contemporary men and women. Hard to tell, amidst all the rubble.

I'm currently 22 weeks pregnant with my second child, and find it so hard believe that my husband would have no rights if I made the tragic "choice" that this woman made. It truly sickens me. I’m blessed to be married to an amazing father. How sad that Stachokus will not get the opportunity to parent his child. How sad, also, that his experience is not unique.

This is a good reminder that the tragic effects of abortion reach beyond the baby and the mother. Anyone in that situation should check out the website www.abortionchangesyou.com.

Good point IrishFreckles. My point was really that I didn't have that much sympathy for the father in this case. It all goes to the baby.

If men did not inseminate women there would be no fetuses to abort.

We men should all withhold our semen until our "property" rights to our spermatazoa and the lifeforms generated therefrom are recognized.

That would put the abortion industry, the condom manufacturers and the contraceptive and abortion drug manufacturers out of business overnight.

Men, it is OUR fault, so it is OUR responsibility to end it. No sex with any women anymore until we have our rights respected. As long as we give women sperm unconditionally, we will never get our due.

Armstrong Williams writes, "together they made a decision that led to the creation of a baby (a feat neither of them could have accomplished individually)."

That is false, of course. Somatic cell nuclear transfer is now capable of creating a cloned embryo of a woman for implantation into her own womb. It may not be legal or practiced. But people need to start thinking far beyond the simplistic categories that inform Williams's opinion. The coming changes in reproductive technology, among other areas, will leave traditionalists gyrating in anger, and will turn to mush many of their precious myths.

My post is purposely titled. SCNT was capable of this in the 1990s. The 21st century will be even more grating to those wanting to live in the 17th.

I agree that the young man in the story was still in the wrong not to wait until he was married to become a father. His values and dreams are disordered. Had he been married the chances of his wife changing her mind would be much less. For one her parents wouldn't be pressuring her into having an abortion.
Sure we can feel sorry for the young man and how his rights are being trampled on. But not his right to get married! Not his right to be honorable!
I think there is a real danger when we just look at the fact that he could not stop his child from being aborted and feel sorry for him and not take into account that he was in the wrong morally in the first place. The Catholic Church teaches that the end does not justify the means. Yes, he wanted to be a father - the end. The means - get my girlfriend pregnant? No, get married!

I favor both an absolutist and incrementalist approach, but I'm appalled at the hard-core pro-life incrementalists. Some pro-life leaders have said that if they were alive when slavery was legal, then they would've favored keeping slavery legal in order to let an incrementalist strategy play itself out. Can you believe this??? For the incrementalists, would you agree with such pro-life leaders? I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

The fact that our NEW God the American Government has given women the rights to choose (sin free)is ridiculous.

The fact that any American marriage could alter this female immoral stance is even worse.

No American marriage is a Christian marriage. American marriage is the WORST CREATOR of "widows and fatherless children" than any law ever produced by mankind. It will lead us to the LION!

GOD BLESS FAMILY LAW
I purchased my children from a Superior Court Judge. Lord forgive me!

In the US the equal rights movements over the decades and the unwillingness of the men living in those times to fight back has led to these problems we are having now. I know anyone who lived then has their reasons for why you couldn't fight back and in many cases the men were off at work while their wives were at home using there free time, that was afforded by the man working to get these laws passed. I would say that the over compensation for perceived past wrongs has made the middle aged, middle class, white male, The most discriminated against person in the US. Add on top of that any attempt to stand up for our selves is shouted down by people left, right and center and it's going to take an act of God to fix it.