Should a man have the legal right to stop his girlfriend from having an abortion if he wants the baby and she doesn’t?
If not, why?
If so, why?
Is Mom the only parent that counts until the baby is born, or should both parents have a say from the get-go?
If a man should not have the right, is it justifiable, then, to force a man who DOESN’T want a child he has created to pay child support for 18 years, when, if he had been able to make the decision, the baby would have been aborted?
It is the woman’s body… It seems a bit, I dunno, weird, if the man could veto her choice to abort the baby. She’d be forced to carry the child for 9 months just so the father could care for it?
Lenin yeah. I imagine in a case like this, she’d turn the kid over and he’d take care of it for the rest of his/her life.
It’s hard to say “it’s the woman’s body” considering the body in danger of death is not hers. But that’s a whole other ball of wax.
Personally, I think men SHOULD have the right to save their child, however there is no practical way it could be enforced. Any woman hell bent on having an abortion would simply lie and say that her boyfriend/husband isn’t the father, some other guy is.
The basis for legalized abortion is the right of a woman to have autonomy over her own body. (BTW, I’m talking basis in terms of legal rights, not trying to argue moral issues). Granting someone else supervening authority over her would then negate the basis for the legal right to abortion to begin with.
That’s one thing I don’t understand about abortion laws.
Having autonomy over her own body. That’s cool.
A separate person could not be considered a woman’s body part.
/end hijack
I beg to differ.
Bolding is mine.
A fetus is not a separate person, exactly.
For the most part, legally, it’s not a separate person until after birth.
Again, I’m not looking to argue moral issues, only point out the legal framework which is being observed/criticised/ignored in this process.
Ok, I’m with you on the legal part.
However, genetically speaking, the baby is a separate person the minute sperm meets egg. Whether you consider it “alive” at that moment, or when it is first felt kicking, or when it takes its first breath is irrelevant. There is no way a pregnant woman could be considered to simply have a new body part for 9 months or so.
No it’s not separate-can it survive on its own? No.
So it’s not a “separate” entity.
It’s still a part of its mother.
Can a newborn baby survive on its own? No.
So is it still a part of mom?
I think there is some validity to a man having a say, but if the woman doesn’t consult the father she probably has a good reason. Abortion is a difficult decision, and I can’t imagine any woman who had a worthwile man in her life going into it alone- if the man is abusive the woman shouldn’t be required to consult him, and in my opinion abortion would be preferable to being born into an abusive relationship.
Basically I feel that there is a moral obligation but it should never be made a legal obligation because the woman can make a more informed decision than strangers can.
What do you mean by “right”? Legally I think a father shouldn’t have any recourse. Ethically, he should be given at least a 50/50 say in the matter.
Perhaps a middle ground where it’s a civil suit instead of a criminal one. A father couldn’t stop an abortion but maybe seek damages if one was had against his will. Not sure how I feel about all of the ramifications of that, but I have a much better feeling than physically stopping someone from having an abortion or sending them to jail.
Usually though, I don’t think that it’s as simple as a 50/50 split. People have mixed emotions and look to their partners for help and guidance.
It doesn’t seem right that a potential mother could simply ignore the other’s wishes outright. I think that’s all the more reason for people to have serious discussions about this beforehand. If a man has a moral stand against abortion under any circumstances, he should make that clear in the beginning so that he knows how his partner feels.
AFA the part of the mother argument, I don’t think it holds for the full nine months since a premature baby can survive without the mother. It still holds true for the first trimester though, when most abortions take place.
I am trying to imagine what a cherry place the world would be with the sudden influx of dead beat moms.
I mean guys do kind of get the dirty end of the stick when it comes to child support. after all women who dont want the baby can abort or give it up for adoption. In the case of the dad all he can do is stand around and look.
In what sense? Because they are physically conjoined?
Does this mean that Siamese twins are actually just one person?
The newborn baby can survive without its biological mother. There are, as I’m sure you really should know by now, such people on this planet as orphans. Some orphans are even, get this, alive today.
:rolleyes: In the sense that the baby is not * ** legally a person under the law until it has been born and therefore has no rights because non-persons cannot have rights. ** *
Thank you, Stoid.
As others have said, the newborn baby can be an orphan. Others can take care of it. It can breathe, etc…but pretty much anyone can take over the role of care taker. The fetus on the other hand does depend on its mother, and there really is no other way to care for it. You can’t just put it into another uterus.
If she does this, she will have to pay him child support until the child is 18 (and the child itself from 18 to 21, or 23 in California).
On the other hand, he does NOT have to pay her support while she’s pregnant.
Seems a bit unbalanced, if you ask me.
Uh, yes, it is. A woman risks death, permanent disability, and other life-threatening and life-shortening conditions by carrying a pregnancy to term. The father’s (medical) risk ended at the time he had sex with her.
Abortion is not an easy issue. Fetocentric reasoning (which reduces the woman to a walking incubation chamber) is not the answer. Allowing the father to forbid an abortion amounts to giving a man the power to enslave a woman to his will for a period of nine months, merely by impregnanting her. Such a situation is odious, and especially so in the case of rape where the pregnancy was forced upon the woman against her will. Women are not merely self-propelled incubation units, and treating them as though they were is insulting in the extreme.