Choice for Men Hits Snag in Georgia

I received this depressing news from Kingsley Morse: "The Supreme Court in the U.S. state of Georgia has legalized
discrimination! In Palmer v. Bertrand, Georgia's highest court has made men second class citizens by ruling that it's OK to protect women's family planning, but not men's. The man in this case is going to ask the court to reconsider, and if it won't, he intends to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a related move, the U.S. based National Center for Men has also thoroughly updated it's internet efforts. You can help too." Click "Read More" below to view the rest of his message, and to find out what you can do to help.Men have been treated as an under class without reproductive rights since
Roe v. Wade in 1973, despite the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of
"equal protection". The National Center for Men takes the position that
forcing only men into parenthood discriminates, is demeaning and offensive
to the basic principles of human dignity. Ironically, the Georgia Supreme
Court's ruling is also counter to the trend of protecting men's family
planning in that state's own legislature, which recently introduced HB369
to stop non-paternity fraud.



Unfortunately, although we believe in the principles of his case, his
attorney, NCM's executive director and I all expect that he has little
chance of getting any relief. It seems to me that we need to foster more
of a public discourse about men's reproductive rights before we can
realistically expect the U.S. Supreme Court to even consider a case like
this. Toward that end, the National Center for Men is fostering public
debate by expanding its internet presence:



1.) Our improved web site (www.choiceformen.com) is now officially
up and running. It has



a.) news,



b.) case law,



c.) over 10,000 emails,



d.) a search engine,



e.) a click-able flowchart to help paternity suit
defendants,



f.) a survey and



g.) much more.



2.) The digest version of the messages submitted to the Legalize
Choice for Men email list (a.k.a. lc4m-d) is being forwarded to
usenet.



Publicity from the Georgia case would also foster public debate and the
man involved told me that he'll reconsider going public once he knows if
they'll accept his case under a pseudonym. Evidently we should know in a
month to two years.



If you'd like to support his efforts, you can:



1.) Help pay his legal fees. The appeal is expected to cost $US
5000 and he's considering filing for bankruptcy. Send
contributions to his attorney:



Philip T. Raymond, III

SHAFFER, RAYMOND & DALTON

Post Office Box 1935

Macon, Georgia 31202-1935

(912) 471-1112

bfturnip@mindspring.com

State Bar No. 596850



2.) Consider writing an amicus brief. We'll know more later about
the details of submitting them, but I can tell you now that my
understanding is that Federal Courts are very picky about how
amicus briefs must be submitted and it may be necessary to get an
experienced attorney involved.



3.) Look for other cases that are ready for U.S. Federal Court and
which could be combined with his in a class action.



Thanks,

Kingsley G. Morse Jr.

Reproductive Rights Chairman

National Center for Men

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