The Paper Abortion
by The paper abortion, an idea whose time has come?
Women have reproductive rights. Men have reproductive responsibilities and liabilities.
“What would you call it if women lost not only the right to terminate a pregnancy when they wanted to abort it, but even lost the right not to terminate it when they did not want to abort it? If she were forced to have a fetus aborted that she wanted to raise? You give up? It would be called EQUALITY, because that is the present status of men.”–Fred Hayward, Men’s Rights Inc.
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The Right to an Abortion
When abortion on demand was made legal thru the deceit of Roe vs. Wade, it was lauded that women finally had control over their own bodies, over their reproductive rights, and over the choice of becoming a parent or not. Yet the self-same groups who are so pro-choice for women’s right to an abortion are also vehemently against pro-choice rights for men.
Anyone who believes for one moment that abortion’s #1 use isn’t as birth control is deluded. Stress or anxiety which might affect the woman’s mental health, brought about by the presence of a pregnancy is simply not a valid reason. It is an excuse, and a poor one at that.
Abortion allows women to abuse their “rights” and neglect their own personal responsibilities. Most of the time at the mental, emotional, physical, and financial expense of men and society at large.
The simple fact of the matter is this; if abortion is actually an expression of a constitutional right, a similar expression of a constitutional right must be observed and protected for men. Anything less is discrimination based on gender.
Excuses to Deny Men Reproductive Rights
There are several excuses used to deny men equal reproductive rights with women. The first and foremost of these is that the man should have thought of that before having sex.
This has been nicknamed the “pay to play” excuse. That men having had the pleasure of sex with the woman must now submit payment in whatever form the woman desires. Whether that is to be a father, perhaps also a husband, or just a wallet, or a shattered human being because his potential child has been murdered.
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Post CommentCraigz
On April 22, 2010 at 5:41 am
Great write
Karen Gross
On April 22, 2010 at 10:17 am
I agree completely, but I think that the papers should be drawn up and signed BEFORE a nonmarried couple has sex. No paperwork means that the woman could cry rape, but if she signed it, the sex was consenting. They should write down what contraception will be used, and if none, then they should agree on what they will do if a pregnancy is caused. If they are both too drunk or high to sign a paper, they shouldn’t be having sex.
- abortion activists have been trying to convince us that the product of abortion is not human until it is born. Therefore, during the pregnancy, there is no child, just tissue that is part of the woman’s body, that she has complete rights to. This comes back to bite them when it does become a child. Now it is a child, so now the father has responsibilities.
-we need to reeducate the public about the facts of life: babies come from having sex. If you are old enough to have sex, you should be mature enough to discuss with your partner what the two of you will do if this results in a pregnancy.
Great article, Stephen. I just pray that the people who need this education will read it. Unfortunately, most of our articles on Triond are just preaching to the choir.
Belinda Dobie
On April 22, 2010 at 11:03 am
You bring up valid points here. There are many out there who would benefit from reading this article. Thanks for sharing.
Rachel
On April 23, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Women have lost control. This would benefit society, men, and ultimately women.
ovaflor
On October 12, 2010 at 12:56 am
seriously, dude, what century are you living in?
simply put:
it’s not your body. it’s the woman’s. she’s the person who’s going to carry the baby to term, she’s the person whose body is going to change dramatically and permanently after giving birth. in most cases, men disappear after getting their women pregnant. in some cases, they disappear a few months after the baby arrives. i’m a single mother, so i know.
give me statistics of the number of men who financially supported their illegitimate offspring for the mandatory 16 years. then give me statistics of the number of single mothers who had to quit school and work menial jobs to support children they didn’t want in the first place.
and jeez, men have all the rights and opportunities they could ever want! and they want to take away our rights to decide what to do with our bodies as well? gimme a break.
your right, as men, is to be part of the discussion. ultimately, the choice lies in the women. because It’s Their Bodies.
Stephen J. Ardent
On October 12, 2010 at 7:35 am
Seriously…who uses the word “dude” anymore? What decade are you from?
You’re right, it’s not my body.
And his financial is not hers either. It’s his body that produces it. Not to mention the fact that it’s not her right to determine whether he becomes a father or not.
Deal with it.
Fark
On October 13, 2010 at 2:47 pm
A couple thoughts.
1. Men are still paid more on the dollar than women (with women being paid 76% at the same age, education level and work experience, as per the U.S. Financial Census 2006), which is the primary excuse for unconditional child support. The idea is that, because men get paid more, they have more to spare.
… And to a degree, I agree with this. I’ve met lots of guys who refuse to pay less than $500/mo in child support because it’s “too much”, but buy luxury cars for themselves. And yeah, there’s a bunch of women who’ll buy fancy cell phones with child support too. I’m just saying it doesn’t justify the complaint.
The only real solution is a structural change, not a bureaucratic change. Make the child support come from the government. Men won’t have to pay more than they usually would, and the pooled resources (primarily from companies and rich folk, and then less-affluent people) will relieve the burden on the individual.
2. Make abortion insurance- and government-supported. This sounds creepy, but abortion can’t really be a right if it’s not free. It’s why few people in this country believe food is a human right: they see it as just to pay for food, even bare food like rice, beans and potatoes.
Giving women the option to have an abortion without having to take an often-unsustainable financial hit will keep men from being hit up financially if they do not want a child. (I consider not wanting a child a more important right than wanting one, since there are plenty of children, after all.)
Also, using your thought process, it stops women from having an excuse. After all, $300 can be half your apartment rent, and the entire point of an abortion is to stop something from happening that will happen without intervention, not to make something happen.
Free abortions means that it is indeed her sole responsibility if she chooses not to get an abortion.
3. The argument that women and men have equal reproductive rights is disingenuous, since women bear more reproductive burden. Simply put, use of someone else’s body without their consent or against their will is rape, regardless if someone will die without the use of their body. There should be no veto power when it comes to abortion; supporting a man’s “right” to force anyone to continue a pregnancy is rape, flat out. It is someone else being allowed to force you to do something with your body that you do not consent to.
4. The majority of women having abortions regularly used contraceptives during sex. (Guttmacher institute, 2008 stats.) The idea of the abortion as birth control is pretty stupid. It’s not that it doesn’t happen; it just happens rarely enough to be negligible.
5. It is actually relatively difficult to obtain child support. Simply because something is court-ordered doesn’t mean it’s going to be enforced; I’ve known women who were trying to get CS and were in the department with their ex, and were told repeatedly by staff that they couldn’t find her ex despite the fact that he was in the same building.
6. “Currently when a woman becomes pregnant, a man, for all intents and purposes, becomes the woman’s property.”
Hyperbole is unamusing, especially from someone so historically privileged. White, middle-class males have very little credibility on the subject of what being someone’s property is like.
7. People still use “dude”, dude. It’s still quite popular, and hardly restricted to the older set.
Stephen J. Ardent
On October 18, 2010 at 1:19 am
1. Women’s career styles are vastly different than mens, accounting for the difference. And more women are in colleges than men so there is no rational except sexism to use this as a reason.
2.No.No. No. Less government. Not More.
3. No. The whole point is that they have unequal rights. Women may have the pure physical burden of bearing the child, so what? Women should not have the right to be the sole determiner of when a man becomes a father or not.
4. And contraceptives fail at an alarming rate don’t they? Abortion is used as birth control when a woman is granted one on demand.
5. Your personal anecdotal evidence is conclusive of nothing.
6. Historical privilege. Blah, blah, blah, you’re just skewered any rational credibility you might have had. I should have see this one coming. What flavor is the koolaid this week?
Riam
On December 5, 2010 at 6:42 pm
You know, I’m definitely pro choice, but you have a point. I don’t think anyone should be forced to not have an abortion or to have an abortion, and it’s sad that people who want to be fathers are denied that. But the woman is the one carrying the baby, who has to take care of it when it’s born, not the father. If they come up with some way to have a male carry the baby through the pregnancy, and give the male the responsibility to take care of it when it is done, that would be equality, and if the female wanted an abortion and the male didn’t, they would just have to transfer the fetus into the male’s body.
But as it is now, a good policy is before a male and a female have sex, they need to come to an agreement about what they will do if the female gets pregnant. And if they can’t come to an agreement, they shouldn’t have intercourse. Sounds fair to me.