This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Make baby trapping/pregnancy coersion illegal!
We want baby trapping to become illegal, this means a man cannot be forced to pay for a child that he was forced to have because the female wanted one by any means, this could be via rape or lying about what contraception is or isn't being used
More details
For example, a man and woman are in a relationship, the man wants to break up, before this she lied about being on the pill so he didnt use a condom, she has now trapped him in the relationship using the baby he didn't want or consent to having to keep him in the relationship
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
We understand that you are concerned about women having a child against the wishes of a sexual partner, but it's not clear exactly what you want the Government to do about this.
It is already an offence to cause a person to engage in sexual activity if they have not consented to this activity, and there is case law that consent is not valid where sexual activity has been consented to on a basis that turns out to be false.
Domestic violence and abuse, which includes any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse is also an offence.
Deciding whether to prosecute someone for these offences would be a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts, not the Government or House of Commons.
We could accept a petition calling on the Government to restrict the circumstances in which a parent is liable for child maintenance, but it would need to be clear in what circumstances a parent should not be liable for child maintenance, and how this could be demonstrated.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.