In response to the patriarchal treatment of our bodies as property, criminal defense attorney Ms. Karen Suzanne Wilkes has drafted sample legislation based upon licensing & property laws, demanding that men pay for “licensing, use and maintenance of our bodies & the offspring we create.”

Ms. Wilkes’ sample legislation reads:

It shall be unlawful (a felony, punishable by 10 years imprisonment) for any man to impregnate a woman without first obtaining and filing with the clerk of court a sworn affidavit signed by said woman, and signed by 2 witnesses, giving her express consent to be impregnated by that man. In addition, at the time of filing said affidavit, the man shall post a cash bond with the court in an amount equal to 20% of the man’s gross income for the next 18 years, thereby covering the cost of child support in the event a child is born as a result of the man’s act in impregnating the woman. The cash bond will also include an additional amount to cover the cost of all prenatal care & the cost of delivering the baby.

This legislation fairly shares both the burden of pregnancy and the burden of birth control and would put a swift stop to criminalizing abortion and miscarriage, as well as ceasing efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and make birth control harder to get and more expensive. … Read More ^[2]