Man Behind `Roe v. Wade for Men’ Says He Should Have Had Choice

c. 2006 Religion News Service SAGINAW, Mich. _ Matt Dubay doesn’t see himself as a deadbeat trying to duck child support for his 8-month-old daughter. The Saginaw Township resident views himself as a champion for men who are “railroaded” into becoming fathers for children they never wanted. “I don’t believe men have any say and […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

SAGINAW, Mich. _ Matt Dubay doesn’t see himself as a deadbeat trying to duck child support for his 8-month-old daughter.

The Saginaw Township resident views himself as a champion for men who are “railroaded” into becoming fathers for children they never wanted.


“I don’t believe men have any say and are not given any rights whatsoever (in childbirth decisions),” the 25-year-old says. “Whatever a man has to say is simply ignored.”

The computer programmer says that frustration led to his filing a lawsuit March 8 in U.S. District Court in Bay City against a former girlfriend who gave birth to a child he didn’t want, then obtained a court order forcing him to pay $500 monthly in child support.

The National Center for Men, a men’s rights organization based on Long Island, N.Y., also is filing the lawsuit _ dubbed “Roe v. Wade for Men” _ against Lauren Wells, also of Saginaw Township.

It’s shaping up as a nationally watched battle of the sexes. Advocates for men’s rights hope the lawsuit will enable men to decline financial support in unintended pregnancies, while women’s advocates contend the support of a child from both parents _ even in broken relationships _ is a cornerstone of American child-rearing.

“You would be opening up a Pandora’s box,” says Susan K. Prine, director of Saginaw County Friend of the Court, an agency that oversees child support payments. “If an individual thought, `I don’t want to have a relationship with this child,’ and if they know there are no consequences, that would be a horrible thing for society.

“You would have a lot of men coming out of the woodwork saying, `She lied to me.”’

In a brief interview, Wells criticized the lawsuit.

“My focus is on providing a nurturing home for our baby,” said Wells, 20, who attends college and works for a wireless phone company. “I am disappointed that Matt has decided not to participate in Elisabeth’s life so far and has instead chosen to contest any responsibility from our consensual actions.”


The lawsuit before Judge David M. Lawson also names as a co-defendant County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas, whose office advocates for custodial parents in child support cases. The suit seeks to extend to men the privacy right granted to women over childbearing decisions in the U.S. Supreme Court landmark ruling Roe v. Wade in 1973.

It contends that Michigan law discriminates against non-custodial fathers when it routinely orders them to pay child support. Dubay wants federal courts to overturn the law, as well as reimburse his child support payments and legal expenses.

Gloria A. Woods, a Saginaw Valley women’s advocate, says the lawsuit is frivolous.

“Pregnancy takes sperm as well as an egg,” Woods says. “The essence of what happened is that Mr. Dubay had unprotected sex. He needs to accept responsibility for that action.

“If Mr. Dubay ever gets pregnant, I’ll support his right to make his own decisions about his pregnancy.”

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Dubay says a lawsuit was the last thing on his mind when he began dating Wells in late summer of 2004. He says they dated for about three months and had unprotected sex after she claimed she was infertile and was taking birth control pills for other medical reasons.

For reasons he wouldn’t discuss, Dubay says the couple broke up in October 2004. Three weeks later, she landed a bombshell: She told him she was pregnant with his child.


Recalling her claims of infertility, Dubay says he felt deceived.

“I was quite shocked,” Dubay says. “I’m generally a pretty level-headed person, and I tried to stay as calm as I could.”

He says the two talked about the possibility of aborting the child or placing it for adoption. He says Wells expressed a desire to keep the child.

He says they never discussed marrying.

“I painted a very clear picture at that point that I was not ready to be a father,” Dubay says. “I was not ready to be a part of the child’s life.”

The birth of Dubay’s daughter passed without his knowledge. In the summer of 2005, Dubay received court papers stating Wells was suing him for child support.

That led to the first _ and only _ time he has seen his daughter. He saw Wells and his daughter briefly during a court-ordered meeting last summer in which technicians tested his blood and his child’s. The test confirmed he was her father.

Dubay says he shouldn’t have to pay to raise a child when he wasn’t part of the decision-making that brought her into the world.


On Feb. 10, court records show, Saginaw County Probate Judge Patrick J. McGraw ordered Dubay to pay $500 in monthly child support to Wells and his daughter. Dubay owes his first payment this month.

That financial obligation is proving a hardship, Dubay says. To prepare for the burden, he says, he sold a vehicle and took a roommate into his home.

He says he recently lost his job at Diamond Computer, which filed for bankruptcy, and took a lower-salary position at Yeo & Yeo Computer Consulting.

Frustrated with his predicament, he contacted The National Center for Men. Officials there expressed a desire to make his situation into a federal test case for fathers’ rights.

Woods _ program director of the Underground Railroad, a shelter for battered women in Saginaw _ says she doubts the lawsuit will make a ripple in legal precedents.

“I don’t see it as a battle of the sexes,” Woods says. “This is a small group of men who are very vocal and very focused on trying to reduce their financial obligations to their children and increase their ability to control all of the decisions about their children.”


(Scott Davis is a staff writer for The Saginaw News in Saginaw, Mich. Jean Spenner of The Saginaw News contributed to this story.)

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