“There’s only one way to make a baby and men are 100% in control of that part.”
A liberal television producer who’s worked frequently on shows for MTV sparked controversy on social media this week by proposing that women should be able to sue men who get them pregnant for “emotional distress and abortion costs.”
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Ally Maynard, whose left-leaning political commentary could perhaps best be characterized as aggressively radical, stirred up a debate with her feminist hot-take on who should bear the financial responsibility of costs associated with a woman getting pregnant.
“Women should be able to sue men who accidentally get us pregnant for emotional distress and abortion costs. It’s pure negligence,” she said in a tweet that received more than 2,400 likes and 220 retweets.
Women should be able to sue men who accidentally get us pregnant for emotional distress and abortion costs. It's pure negligence.
— ally (@missmayn) March 6, 2019
Followup tweets suggest the Los Angeles-based Maynard, whose writing style is described on IMDb as “darkly funny,” was serious about the idea.
“Pull out or wrap it up. There’s only one way to make a baby and men are 100% in control of that part,” she wrote in a reply to her original tweet.
Maynard countered commenters who disagreed by referencing well-established child support laws, which dictate that a man who “accidentally impregnates a woman” is financially responsible for contributing to the support of the child until the child turns 18. “That some of you would argue he shouldn’t be responsible for a $500 abortion is beyond. Just beyond,” she added.
While conceding that the idea “sounds wild at first,” Maynard argued that “anyone who’s ever helped pay for their partners’ abortion or Plan-B is already doing this.”
If a guy accidentally impregnates a woman he’s responsible for 18 years of child support.
That some of you would argue he shouldn’t be responsible for a $500 abortion is beyond. Just beyond.
— ally (@missmayn) March 7, 2019
Opinions regarding the “Ridiculousness” producer’s proposal were split.
Many users disagreed. “This has to be the most infantilizing statement ever made regarding women,” wrote commenter TheMacWhyte. Others welcomed the idea, with some caveats. “I’ll accept that premise, but can we agree that men should then have equal rights to the child? If the man wants the child but the woman doesnt do we force her to pay child support?” wrote DougHeaton88.
And some felt Maynard hadn’t gone far enough. One anti-Trump commenter said men should also “be required to pay child support from the moment of conception.”
It’s not the first time she’s touched on the abortion issue. In September of last year, Maynard revealed she’d had two abortions, saying they “were both easy, straight-forward decisions” that she hadn’t “spent a single second” of her life regretting.
Maynard’s militant brand of feminism highlights the intensity of modern political rhetoric. Aided by the proliferation of social media platforms like Twitter, which often amplify the voices most skilled at provoking heated emotional reactions, debate has come to be dominated by polarization and a winner-takes-all mentality that celebrates the trolling and “owning” of one’s ideological opposition.
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