The parts of the Coercive Abortion Prevention Act which criminalized men’s personal relationship choices did not pass.
It is one thing to criminalize violence or threats of violence designed to coerce a woman into having an abortion. It is quite another to criminalize men’s personal relationship choices, as the package of bills comprising Michigan’s Coercive Abortion Prevention Act do. CAPA legislation would make it illegal for a man who does not want his pregnant wife or girlfriend to carry a baby to term to withdraw financial support or terminate an apartment lease. Working with Fathers and Families and The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, our supporters wrote the Michigan House Committee on Families, Children and Seniors to oppose CAPA.
This campaign did not take any position on the legal status of abortion as a whole.
Shelli Weisberg, Legislative Director of the ACLU of Michigan, asked us to join them in opposing CAPA. To be clear, we never opposed the provisions of CAPA which deal with violence or threats of violence—as our posts and letters made clear, what we oppose are provisions which seek to criminalize men’s personal and financial decisions.
In our letter to the Michigan House Committee on Families, Children and Seniors to oppose CAPA, we wrote:
[CAPA] would make it illegal for a man who does not want his pregnant wife or girlfriend to carry a baby to term to:
- Withdraw financial support
- Terminate an apartment lease
Beyond the criminal penalties, CAPA would also authorize women to bring civil lawsuits against men who withdrew financial support or terminated their apartment leases.
This violates men’s rights. The U.S. constitution’s protected liberty interests safeguard privacy in areas such as contraception, abortion, marriage, procreation, child rearing and sexual conduct between consenting adults. Do Michigan legislators believe these protections don’t also cover the basic personal choices CAPA proscribes?
The bill is also laden with unfair presumptions of male guilt. There are many legitimate reasons why a man might be unhappy over his wife or girlfriend’s pregnancy. He may leave because he doubts that the child she is carrying is his. He may want her to terminate a pregnancy because he felt he was deceived into getting her pregnant, and doesn’t want to be on the hook for 18 years of child support. He may leave because she blames him for not being a good enough provider, or lashes out at him during pregnancy-related mood swings. None of these behaviors are particularly chivalrous, but they are certainly understandable.
CAPA was first proposed in 2006, and made it through the Michigan House by a 67-38 vote. To learn more, see my co-authored column Coercive Abortion Prevention Act Assumes Male Guilt, Opens Door to Unfair Prosecutions (Detroit News, 11/30/06).
The parts of the Coercive Abortion Prevention Act which criminalized men’s personal relationship choices did not pass.