Wait, Was Joseph a Sperm Donor?

Kerry Howley | April 14, 2006

An Illinois woman is suing her sperm donor ex-boyfriend for child support. I know what you're thinking: What does Charlotte Allen of the IWF have to say about this? Well, here's what:

Uh-oh. The whole idea behind sperm donation is that everyone's supposed to pretend it's a virgin birth -- so that women can be moms but still claim their vaunted "independence" from men. As for what the donor-conceived child might think about the no-daddy arrangement, well, who cares?

Can't have any of that "independence" talk at the Independent Women's Forum! Now, I know that ever since that Murphy Brown episode, most women think raising a kid alone is something like winning an Oscar. But I'm curious: Does anyone still believe IVF is something women do in between burning bras and taking back the night, and then only in order to have a partial birth abortion afterward?

Jennifer Egan's very long New York Times Magazine story on sperm donation profiles a bunch of "single mothers by choice," and each and every woman comes across sounding more IWF than NOW. "Virtually all" of the women Egan interviews hope to find a mate, but they worry their fertility will fade before they find someone worth marrying. The only choice they see is between creating a family in a less-than-ideal order or not having a family at all. So they choose the former.

It's not a massive survey sample, and it's certainly possible that the NYT piece missed out on, or chose to ignore, a subculture of feminists raising kids just to prove they can. But the story Egan tells sounds rather more plausible.