Those adamantly opposed to a woman’s right to choose when it
comes to abortion want to take away her right to decide but do not consider how
all of the responsibility of pregnancy and child rearing would still rest on
the woman. She would be completely
responsible for the outcomes, while having been denied the right to decide if
she wanted to – or was capable of – taking them on.
The only time I hear men mentioned by anti-choicers is when
they say the man has a right to “his” “unborn baby” and the woman has no right
to decide on her own, as though the fetus has nothing to do with the man.
However, these same people never state that the man has
responsibilities toward the issue of his sex act. Nor is it ever said that if the guy doesn’t
want a baby, he shouldn’t have had sex.
That burden is placed on the woman.
Consider a world where abortion is illegal, but equal onus
is placed on the man since he is generally equally responsible for the
pregnancy (and in cases like rape, fully responsible). In such a world, the man would have to take
on 50% of all consequences related to an unplanned pregnancy.
The cost of raising a child would have to be determined so
that he pays that amount, by law, or is charged with abandonment, or child
neglect and goes to jail. He would also
be forced by law to pay half of the costs associated with the pregnancy and the
recovery of the woman.
Child rearing costs would include day care costs since he
must share in anything that affects the woman as a result of the unwanted
pregnancy. If the woman had to interrupt
her career or leave school due to the pregnancy, the man would be held
responsible for helping her – 50% responsible – get back on track.
If the guy won’t do it, or can’t do it, there would have to
be social assistance fully in place to meet what he fails at since, as
anti-choicers insist, all life is sacred and someone has to look out for the
children.
If the woman suffered a miscarriage, the man would have to
be investigated as well to see if he made sure the woman had access to good
food, plenty of rest, and was not exposed to any of his bad habits or
addictions that could have caused her to miscarry.
Her bosses and employers would also have to be
investigated. Did they provide a pregnancy
friendly environment? Did they do
everything required to reduce her stress level, to make sure she wasn’t exposed
to anything in the environment that could affect her pregnancy?
Crazy, right? Well,
these are the things that anti-choicers would force on a woman, and the woman
alone. They do not say those things and
they probably don’t intend for those things to happen, but they sure don’t
address them or consider them when pro-choicers try to explain why abortion can
only be a woman’s choice.
When social issues are raised with the anti-choicers, they
brush them off, or at best, claim these matters can be dealt with later, after
anti-abortion laws are passed. But that
would never happen. A male dominated
world will never make men 50% responsible for all aspects of pregnancy and
child rearing.
Women are unquestioningly made responsible for all aspects
of pregnancy and child rearing. They are
the default breeders and caregivers.
There are some excellent fathers, yes, and more praise to them for doing
it without being forced to. And yes,
some men are forced by law to provide the bare minimum to their offspring, but
it is often not even enough to feed the child for a month.
The rest is on the woman.
She has to sort out day care so she can work to provide for the
child. She has to set aside her personal
goals to have and raise the child. She
alone faces the related health issues.
And if she abandons the baby because it’s too much for her to handle,
she is charged with abandonment. She can’t
drop the baby off at the biological father’s and say, ok, your turn, your
responsibility, because that’s abandonment unless he agrees to adopt the
kid. But if the guy turns his back on
the baby, that’s not abandonment since the mother is default caregiver. That says a lot. If the child goes hungry – mother’s
fault. No one goes chasing down the dad.
All the responsibility on the woman means the choice to go
through with a pregnancy is her choice and hers alone. If we lived in a different world where
responsibility was naturally shared and needed no laws to enforce it, that
would be different. But we don’t, and we never will.
