The Question of Abortion - Essay Example

ABORTION Introduction The question for argument is whether a male should have a say in whether his partner should or should not have an abortion. The implication behind such a discussion is that abortion is both legal and an accepted procedure at least in certain circumstances. Because one’s position on the morality and legality of abortion per se can color the issue of male involvement in the decision making process, I would like to start off by declaring that I lean toward the pro-choice side of the debate both for technical and moral reasons.

The technical reason is that while the fetus is a mandatory precursor to life, life itself does not begin until it leaves the mother’s body and begins to live as an independent entity, in other words is “born”. After all, we don’t measure our life and our birthdays from the date of conception, which may not be known exactly, but from the date of birth. Therefore, I don’t accept the pro-life argument that abortion is necessarily murder because I would argue that abortion is not the taking of “life”, only the potential for life.

More importantly, I submit while life should be highly valued, the potential quality of that life is also important. To have any chance for a decent, happy life the child must be wanted, loved and nurtured preferably in a nuclear family. I believe that pro-life advocates ignore this reality, and that no life is preferable to one of potential abuse and deprivation. Male Involvement in Decision Making I think it is useful to consider this issue from the perspective of both casual partnerships and more permanent long term ones, whether married or not.

With respect to casual partnerships, I think the female should have the absolute right to decide whether to abort or keep the potential child, with no input whatsoever from the male because it is unlikely he will be involved in the child’s life. However, if paternity is admitted or can be proven he should be required to pay for the child’s support or abortion expenses depending on the woman’s decision. In the case of more permanent relationships, I think the issue is a little more complex, so that while the male should have some input, the ultimate decision should rest with the female.

When I say he should have some input, I mean this from a relationship rather than a legal perspective, that is, it should help the quality of the relationship if he is allowed to express his opinions, but with rare exceptions I believe the ultimate decision should rest with the female. For example, if she wants to keep the child , but he feels he has grounds to consider her likely to be an unfit or abusive mother, he should apply to the courts to assess whether an abortion would be in the best interests of the potential child.

The argument that men should be able to decide the abortion status of their partner to me smacks of a desire to return to male controlled society. After all, it is the female that must endure the pain of child birth and in many instances is primarily responsible for nurturing the child, especially in the early years, so that giving males control of such decisions would definitely be anti feminist and subjugating women. Especially if potential partners are on opposite sides of the pro life-pro choice debate, it may be better for them not to pursue a permanent relationship if the male feels he cannot defer to the woman’s position on the issue in the event of her pregnant particularly if unexpected.

For the health of the relationship it is preferable that both parties are on the same page regarding the abortion debate, or at the very least they agree to disagree with the woman’s position taking precedence. Generally speaking, in the US the courts have decided that fathers have no legal rights in the partner’s decision to abort or not. Although the decision was close, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey the Supreme Court upheld the right of a woman not to even inform her partner about her abortion on the grounds that “the right to decide whether or not to have a child is a fundamental aspect of individual privacy “ protected by the Constitution ( Nicholson 2011).

Conclusion I believe that a woman’s body is in a sense her “property” and therefore she should have the ultimate right to decide whether to give birth or not, subject only to a court ruling that due to past history of child abuse or neglect, or substance abuse she would likely be an unfit mother, requiring the state to assume custody and arrange foster care or adoption. While ideally the issue should be decided jointly by both partners, in the interest of relationship harmony the male should be at least informed and consulted even if this is not a legal requirement.

While the egalitarian ideology of our society promotes equal rights for men and women, even though they have recently made significant progress, women still lag behind men. Upholding their primary rights in the area of child bearing where their personal, emotional and physical commitments are generally greater than those of their male partners, can help offset this imbalance. Work Cited Nicholson, Joseph “What Does the Law Say About the Father’s Rights on Abortion?” Livestrong.com Jul. 16, 2011 retrieved from www.

livesrtrong.com/article/115953-law-say-fathers-rights-abortion.