For all we hear about women supposedly not having equal rights to men, it sure seems that in some cases, women have more rights than men.
Case in point: An Arizona court recently ruled that a woman wanting to use her ex-husband’s saved sperm to become pregnant “outweigh[ed]” the man’s desire not to become a father. Due to this court ruling, the man could also be liable for 18 years of child support.
In 2014, Ruby Torres was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. She was told that after chemotherapy she likely wouldn’t be able to become pregnant. She and her then-boyfriend John Terrell decided to preserve some embryos so that she might one day be able to become a mother.
The couple would eventually marry but then divorced, according to the Arizona Republic. During the divorce, Terrell wanted to make sure Torres couldn’t use the embryos to become pregnant. He brought his case to the Maricopa County Superior Court, who ruled the embryos should go to a third party. Torres appealed, and received a win on March 14.
“The trial court erred when it placed heavy weight on the parties’ inability to ‘co-parent,'” Judge Jennifer B. Campbell wrote in a 2-1 decision overturning the lower court’s finding. “Nothing in the record suggests that either of them expected or intended to co-parent any offspring derived from the embryos.” – READ MORE