A man in Canada sued a woman because she got pregnant despite claiming she had been on birth control.
That sounds an awful lot like a guy who just didn’t feel like taking his own responsibility in pregnancy prevention.
Luckily, that’s exactly how the Canadian courts saw the man’s claim, with the Ontario Court of Appeal basically just giving him a good old Liz Lemon eye roll.
The ruling on the Canada birth control lawsuit placed responsibility on both the man and the woman in a relationship. Image via NBC/Giphy
“I see no basis on which to impose liability on the mother for any net negative impact [he] may consider that he has suffered due to his having fathered the child,” Justice Paul Rouleau wrote.
According to court documents, the couple – identified only as PP and DD – had a fling back in 2014 that lasted two months. During that time, they had unprotected sex on several occasions.
Shortly after their split, PP received a call from DD saying that she was pregnant. The child was born in early 2015. PP claims to have been shocked by the development, saying DD had led him to believe that she was on birth control and therefore not interested in having a child.
This man’s eye-popping suit then came after DD with a request of more than $4 million for “fraudulent misrepresentation,” claiming he suffered “emotional harm” from his unplanned parenthood.
Of course, if DD definitely did lie about being on birth control, that’s not okay. And the judge said that such lies would have “undermined PP’s consent to their sexual activity – potentially making him the victim of a civil sexual assault.”
But the court also ruled that it doesn’t waive PP of all of his responsibilities, and certainly doesn’t give him the right to $4 million. Putting the blame on this woman’s birth control “lie” chooses to completely forget the existence of condoms.
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Why does the responsibility to prevent pregnancy fall entirely on women? It seems a bit excessive that in addition to shouldering the physical responsibility should she become pregnant, that a woman also has to be entirely responsible for any preventative measures.
This guy definitely could have just taken responsibility for his own sexual health and used a condom, more than likely preventing pregnancy. It’s not fair for him to be careless and then blame everything on his sexual partner if he doesn’t get off scot-free like he had hoped.
With all of the ridiculous legislation popping up with regards to women’s reproductive health, it’s nice to see that at least Canada is trying to be fair and make the right decision.
