The Paper Abortion
by The paper abortion, an idea whose time has come?
It never dawns on the person throwing this excuse out into the open that what they are actually saying that all women are prostitutes and that all sex between a man and a woman is a transaction between a prostitute and a john.
Am I, and others like me, wrong? Are all women indeed whores?
I think not.
Men’s Reproductive Rights
So what rights should men have in order to be equal and have control over their own reproductive rights and the choice of whether or not to become a parent?
“Justice…dictates that if a woman makes a unilateral decision to bring a pregnancy to term, and the biological father does not, and cannot, share in this decision, he should not be liable for 21 years of support. Or put another way, autonomous women, making independent decisions about their lives should not expect men to finance their choice. Men should not automatically have to pay for a child they don’t want. It’s the only logical feminist position to take.”–Karen DeCrow, former president of the National Organization for Women (NOW)
Currently when a woman becomes pregnant, a man, for all intents and purposes, becomes the woman’s property. The woman holds the man’s entire future, financial and physical, in her hands. For her to tug and pull the strings this way and that at her whim.
This is civilly and constitutionally wrong.
So what is the answer?
The Paper Abortion
It’s called a Paper Abortion. What it is, is a document that would assure that a man’s reproductive rights are protected. A document which shows a man has been made aware of the pregnancy, and that he has a certain amount of time to declare his intention to either be a father or not be a father. A document which a woman needs to have on file to prove that the man was informed of the pregnancy. A document which the man needs to have on file to prove that he declared his intentions within the time frame allotted for the woman to make her fully informed choice regarding an abortion.
This would in effect, alleviate the man of any responsibility whatsoever in the care or raising of any child the woman decided to bring into the world.
It would also alleviate society of the necessity of supporting the deluge of children whose mothers brought them into this world because they knew someone else would support them.
Women have used Roe vs. Wade as an entitlement to irresponsibility. To immorally and unethically abuse and use both men and society as a safety net for their own irresponsible actions.
Now some might raise their fist and scream in my face “What about the children?!”
What about them? Where are your screams and your fists for the millions of children who will never see the light of day, let alone get to know their fathers because their mothers aborted them?
Save your screams and fists for the woman who chooses not to exercise the control of their reproductive rights.
Won’t You Think of the Children?
I am.
On the day men and women’s reproductive rights are finally equal, society will sigh as the weight of the burden of unsupported children is lifted from it.
On the day men and women’s reproductive rights are finally equal, children no longer need to wonder why their father isn’t there. It’s because their mother made a poor choice, and then another poor choice to bring a child into this world without a father.
On the day men and women’s reproductive rights are finally equal, and women are finally held accountable for their choices, abortion as birth control will wither like a weed in winter, and abortions will go back to only being performed in cases of emergency.
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Post CommentPrometheus Ridley Scott
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.