Press Release

Contact Information
Tony Hileman, Executive Director

For Immediate Release - August 5, 2002

(Washington, DC) The American Humanist Association (AHA) urges courts to immediately overturn a judge's inappropriate decision to bar a woman from ending her pregnancy. “If a man impregnates a woman against her will we call it rape. By what right can a man violate a woman’s body by coercing her to consummate an unwanted pregnancy?” executive director Tony Hileman asks.

In Pennsylvania, Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Conahan ruled on July 31 in favor of John Stachokus, the man who is seeking to force former girlfriend Tanya Meyers to carry her pregnancy to term. This goes against a US Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the father’s interest in the fetus’s welfare is not equivalent to the mother’s right to an abortion, saying “it is an inescapable biological fact” that the experience of pregnancy has a greater impact on the woman’s body than the man’s.

Hileman adds, “While, anti-abortion groups praised this ruling and supported Stachokus, arguing that men should have veto power over a women’s right to choose, there is clearly no basis for this sexist decision.”

Meyers asserts Stachokus was abusive, controlling and a bad influence on her two year old son. Now he appears to be using his former girlfriend’s embryo as leverage to retain control. “Americans should be appalled at the continued harassment of Ms. Meyers and this unprecedented legal attack on a woman’s right to choose.” Hileman said.

AHA’s Resolution on a Woman’s Right to Abortion states, that we affirm “the moral right of women to freely terminate unwanted pregnancies.” AHA continues to be a leader in the ongoing struggle for adequate family planning and the right to choose. In the past, AHA members and honorees helped establish the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and we continue to speak-out and mobilize our support when that right is threatened.

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