[Mb-civic] Men's Abortion Rights By JOHN TIERNEY

[Ian]

Michael:

This is one of those issues that "dare not speak its name."  I think Tierney 
is very much on point.  While it is true that it is the woman who must deal 
with nine months of pregnancy - and there is nothing that can change that, 
and it is certainly a relevant point - this does not negate the fact that 
the male (husband, live-in lover, whatever) (i) contributed half of the 
"life" via the sperm, (ii) does have to deal with certain aspects of the 
pregnancy, (iii) will almost certainly be solely or largely financially 
responsible for the child, and, most importantly, (iv) has as much of a 
psycho-emotional stake in having and raising the child as the woman.

The issue is just plain not as simple as "Well, I'm the one who has to be 
pregnant for nine months."  There is FAR MORE involved and at stake then the 
physical discomfort of pregnancy and childbirth, and even ancillary issues 
such as loss of work time, etc.  And BOTH PARTIES have MAJOR stakes in the 
outcome.

Peace.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Butler" <michael at michaelbutler.com>
To: "Civic" <mb-civic at islandlists.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 9:30 PM
Subject: [Mb-civic] Men's Abortion Rights By JOHN TIERNEY


> The New York Times
>
> Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By
>
> January 10, 2006
> Op-Ed Columnist
> Men's Abortion Rights
> By JOHN TIERNEY
>
> Judge Samuel Alito is a reactionary - at least according to feminists
> horrified by his notion that a woman can be required to notify her husband
> before an abortion. But Alito's critics in the Senate face two big 
> obstacles
> this week if they try to make that label stick.
>
> The first is public opinion. Most Americans tell pollsters that they think 
> a
> husband should be notified before an abortion, and the Pennsylvania law 
> that
> Alito approved was hardly a draconian version of that principle. It merely
> required a woman to say, without presenting any proof, that she'd told her
> husband. If she said she feared physical abuse, she was exempted.
>
> The second obstacle is the logic of feminism. Spousal notification has 
> been
> denounced as retrograde by the same advocates who have been demanding 
> gender
> equality in the workplace and at home. If men are expected to be parents
> with equal responsibilities, shouldn't they at least be allowed to discuss
> whether to have a child?
>
> This is an easy question for those on the pro-life side of the abortion
> debate. They'd like men to be not only notified of pregnancies, but also
> given veto power over abortions.
>
> Being pro-choice, I don't agree with that position, but I admire the 
> logic.
> It's a gender-neutral policy: if either parent thinks it's wrong to end 
> the
> pregnancy, then the pregnancy must proceed.
>
> If the pro-choice side adopted a gender-neutral policy, then either the 
> man
> or the woman would have the right to say no to parenthood. I don't know of
> anyone advocating that a woman be required to have an abortion, but 
> there's
> another right that could be given to a man who impregnates a woman who 
> isn't
> his wife. If the woman decided to go ahead and have the child, she would
> have to notify him and give him the option early in the pregnancy of
> absolving himself of any financial responsibility for the child.
>
> This option to have a "financial abortion" has been advocated by a few
> iconoclasts - not all of them men with child-support payments. The term 
> was
> coined by Frances Goldscheider, a professor of sociology at Brown 
> University
> who studies family issues. She compares the current campaign against
> "deadbeat dads" to the punishments once given to "wayward women" for 
> having
> illegitimate children.
>
> "It used to be our daughters we worried about being forced into
> inappropriate parenthood, but now it must be our sons," she says. "Men
> should not be made to become fathers against their will. They should have
> the right Planned Parenthood has claimed for women: 'Every child a wanted
> child.' "
>
> Goldscheider, who's a pro-choice Democrat, has found that her proposal
> provokes a rare bipartisan consensus. "Neither the left nor the right like
> my egalitarian ideas," she says. "The right's response is that men should 
> be
> macho and pay for playing - unless they've gotten burned themselves. The
> left's response is that men should pay, period - unless it's their sons."
>
> There is, of course, one big physical inequality between the sexes in this
> regard: it's the woman who must either have the abortion or go through the
> pregnancy.
>
> But as Goldscheider points out, women also have more power than men to
> prevent the pregnancy because they have exclusive control over some forms 
> of
> contraception. It's not fair, she says, for a woman who lies about being 
> on
> the pill to be able to trick a man into marrying her or making 
> child-support
> payments for 18 years.
>
> If it were just a question of the woman's rights versus the man's rights,
> I'd go along with Goldscheider's proposal. But if the man gets a financial
> abortion and the woman goes ahead with the pregnancy, someone else's 
> rights
> still need to be considered: the child would suffer because of the 
> parents'
> decisions.
>
> Goldscheider's solution to that problem is for the government to provide
> financial support in place of the father. But would this new public 
> subsidy
> encourage more single-parent homes? To avoid that risk, I'd rather stick
> with the current system, unfair as it is, of making all men pay.
>
> But there's no reason that it couldn't be a little fairer. As Alito ruled,
> it's not an undue burden for a wife to notify her husband before an
> abortion. And it's not unfair, as Goldscheider proposes, for a single 
> woman
> expecting child support to be required to tell the father as soon as she
> decides to keep the baby. If men are going to pay to play, they should at
> least know the score.
>
>
>
>
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