With regard to my last post, many of you likely saw where I would be going with this follow up.

While we all pretty much agree that the father of an embryo (I can't bring myself to call it a baby cause it ain't) should have no say in a woman's choice to abort, a great deal of you think that men who become fathers should have a way to legally "opt-put" of their child support obligations if he doesn't want the child.

I'm glad you guys brought this up and expressed yourselves respectfully and even though I can see your POV, I disagree strongly with it.

After reading this book a few months ago, I started seeing the issue of "fatherhood liability" from a completely different perspective.

Men are not always the victims in the baby game.

This particular book tells the story of real life teenage girls living in poverty and becoming mothers well before they are emotionally, mentally, and financially ready. Unlike the image we often see promoted on shows like "Maury" or on fictional television dramas, most of these GIRLS aren't guilty of "trapping" men into fatherhood. As a matter of fact, most of them end up pregnant because of pressure to conceive from a man.

As one of the reviewers of this book stated on Amazon:

"When the authors gave the single mothers an opportunity to explain why they decided to have children so young and before marriage, a common response was that their boyfriends repeatedly whispered the words "I want to have a baby by you," which, in their culture of dating and romance, is the highest form of praise and proof of a willingness to commit."

Now, personally speaking, I can't judge a 15-year-old girl as harshly as I do a grown woman. Hell, I did the dumbest shit EVER at that age so I know what it's like to be a complete, immature idiot who doesn't fully realize the consequences of their actions. I fell for a bunch of lines from guys when I was that age. I especially can't judge as harshly when I realize just how many of these girls are being talked into pregnancy by men sometimes TWICE their age.

I myself was preyed upon by a 26-year-old guy when I was in 11th grade! He thought I looked "hot" in my private school uniform, pursued me ENDLESSLY, and I was intensely flattered. Since my parents were workaholics who killed themselves to maintain our standard of living, pay the mortgage on a 3000 sq. foot house, and keep two spoiled, materialistic kids in designer clothes and in private school (my younger brother and I, as kids, can accurately be described with these adjectives) , I was alone a lot and free to have sex with my new "boyfriend" constantly.

I think about it now and almost become physically ill. Hindsight is 20/20 folks and I did things as a teenager I had no business doing that I would never in a million years contemplate today as a mature, clear-thinking woman.

A grown ass man took full advantage of me and I was naive enough to let him.

I wish I knew his whereabouts today so I could send someone to kick his ass.

That motherfucker should be on one of those Dateline "Catch The Perv" specials.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic.

My own experiences as a teenager are enough for me to have compassion for teenage girls who engaged in the same behavior I did, but had a different result.

Teenage motherhood.

What many of us aren't privy to is the fact that fatherhood is VERY attractive to many young men. They have an active role in convincing girls to become pregnant.These young men see being fathers as a way to validate their manhood. It's an ego thing. The same that we observe in the average, run-of-the-mill breeder.

From what I read in the comments, it's my understanding that many of you want to give license to men like these to impregnate as many women as possible while shirking financial responsibility for the lives they helped bring into this world. Are you guys really advocating that men like this can continue to whisper those sweet nothings of "I want you to have my baby" in a young girls ear, only to say a year later that they "never wanted the kid in the first place" in order to avoid paying child support?

Like, for real? Have we really thought this through?

Because to me it reads like this... "Hey guys, now you don't have to use condoms ever again! After all, if you get someone pregnant, you can just say you didn't want the baby in the first place and voila, no child support responsibilities for you! What's to deter you from having 10 kids to prove what a macho manly man you are with your super sperm? You can have all the street cred that comes with fatherhood and none of the responsibilities!"

Does no one else see how this could create a culture of reckless, irresponsible, repeat offender "baby daddies" with a trail of impoverished women and children left in their wake?

What about couples who break up before their child is born? Let's say the man is A-OK with becoming a father until he and his "baby momma" have a fight before the child is born and they break up. Does he have license to say he didn't want the baby to begin with a month later when it's born and avoid all financial responsibility?

This seems like a mighty slippery slope to me.

And just who ends up paying when a father chooses to shirk his financial responsibility? Um, that would be you and me in the form of the taxes that get jacked from our paychecks to go toward welfare programs.

Oh and I'm a liberal who supports these programs in times of hardship. But as a feminist, I can see something like this for what it is. It's a well known fact that more women live in poverty than men. What many of you are advocating is to me, a disaster that would continue to keep women in poverty in much higher numbers than men.

I can't support that.

The thought that every man facing fatherhood could up and bounce at the last minute saying he "never wanted the kid" makes me fucking ill. This is really a great way to let these sleaze buckets off the fucking hook while putting ourselves, the taxpayers, ON the hook for more money toward babies we had no hand in creating.

I guess I understand the fact that many of you believe a large number of men ARE in fact "trapped" into fatherhood. But I personally just don't let people off the hook that easily. I also don't believe this happens as often as many of you would like to believe. After all, the main scenario we hear most often from men who whine that they were duped is the tired old line "She told me she was on birth control (or said she was sterile)".

Come on. Who falls for that fuckery these days? What a bullshit excuse. It's always your responsibility to use contraception no matter what someone else tells you. Duh. Doubling up on birth control never hurt anyone. Be a fucking man and state your preference to use a condom REGARDLESS of what some woman tells you.

Jeez, grow up guys.

Let's see...what other far fetched excuse have I heard..."she poked holes in the condom." WHAT? That's a good one. LOLZ! I'm sure it happens but sorry, that doesn't engage my sympathy either. Responsible people who are sexually active carry their own condoms. I have like 12 boxes in my nighstand alone, and I'm a GIRL. Let's get real here. Bring your own! Asshole.

And what about the cases that TRULY result in accidents where no one is truly at fault (broken condom, etc.)? Well that's where communication comes into play. Once I discovered a month into our relationship, that my ex was pro-life and didn't believe in abortion, I told him frankly that if I ever "accidentally" became pregnant, I would abort his potential baby the minute I discovered it's presence. No ifs, ands, or butts. I also told him that if this was a scenario he truly found unacceptable, he was welcome to stop having sex with me and end our relationship.

Needless to say, he didn't. I'm way too hot in the sack.

But that's beside the point.

When you're fucking someone, you need to communicate the potential "what if's", and if you can't trust that person's word or deal with the adverse consequences of your actions you need to stop fucking around. Either that or take the ultimate responsibility for your own fertility and get snipped! Whatever you choose, I want me and my tax dollars left out if it. I'd like to see every father in the nation held personally, financially responsible for his kid because that means less money I personally have to contribute to their bastard children.

Maybe if our society wasn't so welfare based I'd feel differently. Maybe. But as of right now, it's my preference that the dick who fucked the woman who had his baby pay for their offspring and not me. It's also my opinion that a man shouldn't be able to fake a woman out by "going with the program" of impending parenthood only to then skip off scot-free at the last minute.

While I may feel sympathy for men who "accidentally" got a woman pregnant due to a broken condom or some other accident that was neither his, nor the woman's fault, I can't support any system that would let him pass HIS responsibility off on ME, the taxpayer. Freedom of choice and being pro-choice means to me that not only should no one be forced to have a baby they don't want, but also that no woman should be forced to abort a baby she does want, simply because the man who fucked her doesn't want to pay to support his child. If the two of them can together come up with an agreement that eliminates his parental rights, fine. If not I believe she has the right to nominal child support from him RATHER than a cut of my tax dollars. If a man can't deal with those apples he can either get snipped or spank his monkey.

His body, his choice.

With all of the factors that go into this argument, there is simply no fair way to regulate a legal "opt-out system". It will forever be his word against hers. Men will be able to coax girls into pregnancy and get off scot free with the simple lie that he didn't want the child. People will agree on venturing into parenthood but if the relationship ends before the arrival of the child, men will know they can walk away with no repercussions. Women and children will languish in poverty in higher numbers than ever before. More of our tax monies would go toward supporting an out of control welfare system.The only "winners" in this game would be the men who are now free to deny their children financial support and continue to breed recklessly with no consequences.

Maybe some of you are ok with that scenario, but I'm not.