Discussion about abortion: part 2

x posted with slug

You are clearly mixing two issues up:

1. As msrisotto says, the man doesn't incubate the baby, the foetus cannot survive without the mother and so if the woman doesn't want to be part of that process then that should be her choice (added to which, the child will be dependent upon her most probably for a long time after birth.)

2. Anyone who has a baby should play a financial part in the baby's upkeep. This is largely irrelevant before birth, so only takes effect after the baby is born, but if the pg woman were starving and her partner had money or food, then you would expect the man to provide then as well. Merely by having sex, both partners make themselves liable financially for the consequences.

You don't have to agree with (1) to agree with (2), or vice versa.

I don't see what is stacked in the woman's favour here. You couldn't be forced to give someone a kidney (or force someone else to do so), OP; so why should the man have a say in (1). Of course, many women might want to give the man as say, but that is because they expect or hope for him to have a relationship with them or their child after birth.

Since the man does not have to go through the risky and potentially life threatening process of pregnancy and childbirth, and since a man does not have to contribute physical resources to the development of the foetus, and since a man is far, far less likely to be made redundant because a woman carrying his child is pregnant, then I think women have a perfect right to have the ultimate decision about what happens i their bodies.

However, if a man chooses to indulge in sexual activity that may potentially result in the production of a child then they have to accept that their actions have consequences. If they really, really don't want a child, then there's always the option of a vascetomy.

There isn't much, if anything, that is stacked in a woman's favour by the way. She's damned if she does and damned if she doesn't with regards to having/not having children.

Well, it takes two to make a baby so just because the man doesn't incubate the thing, doesn't mean it isn't half his.

But, a woman's body is not in any part owned by a man, therefore, her body, her choice. Can you imagine the alternative to that? Forcing women to keep unwanted babies or forcing them to abort wanted ones?