To think men shouldn’t be allowed to express pro-life opinions?

[purpledaze24]

Was just watching (by accident, went down a bit of a rabbit hole!) a YouTube video of this infuriating American far-right man talking about how abortion shouldn’t be allowed (even in the case of rape). Watching it made me angrier and angrier. It’s bad enough hearing anyone bang on about banning abortion, but of course, everyone is entitled to an opinion. However, when it’s a man who has no clue what a woman’s body goes through, and has no regard for the giant responsibility and completely life-changing effect a baby has on a mother’s life (cos let’s be realistic, many fathers find it pretty easy to walk away or continue living life completely responsibly-free), I feel like, how dare he express these opinions, he shouldn’t have a say, it’s just not his place. AIBU or should men be allowed to express anti-abortion opinions? I’m not talking about men whose partner gets pregnant, I’m talking about politicians and men with power talking about banning abortion in general. Watching them talk about it gives me the ick

What you're referring to is a parenting issue. Which is what this is for men - do they want to be a parent or do they not. Lots of alternatives to this including foster/adoptive/kinship care, taking on responsibility as a lone parent etc.

Whereas for women it's a different question altogether - do they want to be pregnant, do they want to give birth and go through labour. This affects women in a way it will never affect men and the only solution to an unwanted pregnancy for a woman who does not want / cannot safely experience pregnancy or labour is Abortion.

No problem with them having an opinion, though they should be conscious that they are talking about a situation that they may well cause but will never find themselves in.

So their opinion cannot be of equal currency. IMO.

What does outrage me is men taking it upon themselves to make laws about somebodies and choices. When they use their power to give their opinions superior currency to women’s.

Abortion, Trans women in women’s spaces etc etc.

Men say all sorts of things and I barely listen to any of them. They have proved themselves to not be up to the job of being decent members of society. En masse, of course. Individually some are basically fine, most of the time but rarely all of the time.

What a wicked, dreadful way to think. Of half the human population. People’s much loved fathers, sons, brothers. You probably regard yourself as virtuous and enlightened, a morally superior person, and yet you come out with the nastiest abuse like this. Thank goodness I’m not like you, or know anyone like you. Women like you make me ashamed to be one.

Everyone should be able to express their opinion. Are you Keir Starmer?

That made me laugh out loud! Well said!

Are there any other issues you'd like to ban people having an opinion on unless they have relevant personal experience or the potential for relevant personal experience?

I understand your point about men trying to police women's bodies but you can't say they are not allowed an opinion, you don't have to give their opinion any weight, I don't.

Obviously I am not expressing support on any level for forced birthers. I am defending their right to their (odious) opinions.

Our laws are made by elected representatives. People who express support in a peaceful way for different laws or to changes in the law are not inciting violence.

They should be perfectly free to express their opinions.

The rest of us are perfectly free to take no notice of said opinions.

Pregnancy is the only medical condition where other people think it's fine to interfere in the patient's decision. I know that many women don't like to think about a pregnancy in those terms but the reality is that this is - to begin with- a medical condition with far reaching implications. The fact that a new human being may result from this process and that the mother may grow to love them unconditionally prevents us from looking at it rationally. However, it is often the most significant biological event that will happen to a woman in her lifetime.

The problem is that there are only 6 countries in the world where sex parity, or just over parity, has been achieved in government. there are 20 countries where there are no women, or single figures, in government.

The idea that men expressing an opinion on this is anything other than harmful, has real-life consequences.

BTW I'm not advocating legally banning them. They just shouldn't have an opinion. Any decent man defers to the woman who is pregnant.

Yep they have that choice when they decide whether or not to have sex with a woman. Not their decision after they've got her pregnant

I'm not for stopping people expressing opinions even when they are opposite to mine, or ridiculous, or poorly formed, as long as they are not illegal (such as spreading racial hated etc).

But yes, I agree that men don't have a clue generally, and people should definitely continue to be stopped from protesting outside clinics.

I do feel for men who want to be a father and don't have a choice in whether their partner has the baby or not.

However, just anything else is abhorrent, the idea that someone may have rights over what happens with someone else's body. Or that doctor are so worried about what is and what isn't legal that they may hesitate to save a women's life as they cannot terminate a pregnancy. Women's rights in this regard are so poor anyway in many countries in the world, including developed ones such as Poland and the US. Shame on them.

Surely we're not so fragile that we can't hear an opinion we don't like, and move on and ignore it?

Sure.
And it's my opinion that they're dickheads.

I have no obligation to someone having an opinion even it differs to mine. The trouble comes when people think they can dictate!

A man doesn't have that luxury just like a woman doesn't have the luxury of walking away. It's life.

Not when it concerns women's bodies they don't get no bloody say or freedom of speech.

When men have vagina's, can conceive then carry a baby full term and birth it they can have a say and an opinion. But until mother nature and biology grant men this ability they need to stfu!

No one, especially men have the right to decide what a woman can and cannot do with her own body. They aren't the ones making the lifestyle changes and dealing with pregnancy related health issues, they do the fun part but women do all the hard work so they get to decide if they want to put their bodies through pregnancy.

Of course they should be allowed an opinion, you can't stop someone having an opinion, everyone has them about everything.

What they shouldn't be allowed is final decision making power regarding someone else's body. Nor should other women apart from the actual woman having to make that decision for herself.

If you want to live in a country with free speech, then absolutely mental (or women) should be allowed to express any view they want. And I am passionately pro choice..

Wouldn’t be your pregnancy without sperm. And it’s not your sperm.

And it's not their egg.
The woman has the final say because she's the one literally carrying the load.

No I am saying somebody’s rights over their womb are sacrosanct. That’s not taking a life.

That the foetus cannot survive outside of the woman’s womb is no more her concern than the fact that people choosing not to be organ donors means others die.

And we don’t prevent people from travelling around with a communicable disease.
Although that’s by the by as remaining at home
while ill is not remotely akin to being forced to carry a child to term and deliver it against your will.

Please see previous reply. Men do have a choice about their sperm... It is when they decide whether to have sex with a woman. Even if contraception is used there is always a risk of pregnancy. They can choose not to have sex with the woman. Once the woman is pregnant, that is where their choice ends, the man is not risking his life carry the baby to term and giving birth to the child. There bodies are totally unaffected by the pregnancy. So no men don't get a choice at that point

A man will never end up pregnant, penniless and partnerless, now will he?

After a man has ejaculated, he has no control over what becomes of that sperm because he no longer has ownership of it. If a man is concerned that his sperm might used for a pregnancy then he should think carefully about where he chooses to stick his dick because his rights to ownership of that sperm end at the point of ejaculation.