content: If female rape victims can abort, should male rape victims pay child support? Under US law, female perpatrators of both statutory AND forced sexual assault can sue the male victim in question for child support. For those who don't know statutory rape is when a person of the age of consent (depending on the state) engages in sex with a minor. The reason why this is a crime is because minors typically don't have the mature capacity to fully understand all the aspects and consequences of sex. They can be naive, and thus suspectible to manipulation by someone who can at least be aware of the consequences but doesn't give a rat's ass. Also keep in mind there are numerous consequences of not paying (or being unable) to pay child support , all of which make it harder to pay the child support (garnishment of wages, fine and imprisonment, suspension of driver's/professional license) to name a few. Also what if the genders were reversed? For one thing women should have the right to choose abortion or in some cases to keep the child. Now let's say you have a female statutory/forced rape victim who decides to have and raise the child. The idea that the male perpatrator should have the right to sue the female for child support or to have ANY custody of the child whatsoever would be considered by most of you to be completely out of the question. Why should this be different if the victim is male?  I know the child support is supposed to be for the child, but do you really expect a rapist to responsibly use the money when she was willing to get pregnant through rape and bring a child out of it? References: http://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/court-of-appeals-civil/1996/2950025-0.html http://law.justia.com/cases/kansas/supreme-court/1993/67-978-3.html https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/the-risks-of-failing-to-make-court-ordered-child-support-payments https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/02/statutory-rape-victim-child-support/14953965/ http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/he-says-he-said-no-to-sex-now-says-no-to-child-support/1183449 http://sex-crimes.laws.com/age-of-consent