ABORTION:Should males/men legally have equal say in their partners abortion?

Question

EXAMPLES
1.) If he wants her to abort,when she will not.
2.) If he would like her to keep the pregnancy,when she is opposed.
Should there be some law in place for him to have equal say?

Answer 1

Absolutely they should have equal say! There was a recent case in the news on a similar issue, which was being played out in the federal courts system in the state of Michigan. I don't have all the answers, but here's even more to think about...

What if the man didn't think she was mentally fit enough to care for that child, and he wasn't goingto be raising it either. Should HE have a right to suggest the best option might be to adopt out to a suitable couple? Surely this would be better than the child being raised by an inadequate mother, and a father that isn't taking part?

In your above scenarios, yes, the owman holds ALL the decisions, AND the man has none... In fact, the man is also FORCED to pay child support as well - even if he wasn't in agreement with her raising the child as well.

So many different twists could be added to this, and it's my belief that something should change... Sooner rather than later.

Answer 2

While this might be an interesting concept, but it isn't practical, even if it were something that was seen as worthy of enacting.

The reason (as all regular Maury Povich viewers know) is that, without a DNA test, it isn't provable that any particular male is the father of the fetus/child. If such a law existed, and a man wanted to claim his 'equal say', the woman could raise reasonable doubt as to whether the man was actually the father of the fetus/child.

Of course, this could then get very ugly in court, as women start insinuating that they had sex with other men....whether true or not. There is a whole lot of social cost to this, without much corresponding benefit.

Aside from the impractical, there is the viewpoint of 'equal say'. This is why many business partnerships have a 51 percent to 49 percent ownership distribution. An 'equal say' works fine when the equal parties agree. It is problematic when the parties differ. In this case, one party's say would have to be 'more equal' than the other.....making it not truly equal.

I like the conceptual idea, especially if the man is going to be charged with half (and often more than half) of the financial responsibility of raising the child. But I can't think of a practical way to give the man legal say in either preventing (as long as abortion is legal) or demanding an abortion.

Answer 3

I think that when considering either keeping or aborting a child a woman should take serious consideration to the feelings and wants of the father, however i do not believe there should be a law forcing her to either have or abort if that is not the choice she has made. From a legal standpoint its not practical, if they disagree, who then casts the deciding vote? What happens if the father want her to keep the baby, she doesnt and then paternity test reveal(after birth) that the child was fathered by another man who would have wanted an abortion. All too complicated, bottom line it is her body and she should have the final decision.

Answer 4

No. The reason why is abortion is a medical issue for women not for men. She goes through the operation he doesn't. If for some reason men had equal say then the courts would be having to decide on every abortion because they'd both have 50/50 rights. No one would be one up on the other. I'm of the opinion that since women carry the child and go through the pain of childbirth that they have something more more like 60/40 say in the matter at least.

Answer 5

This is a hard one to answer... I've thought about it myself many times.

1) If he wants her to abort and she will not, there should be some forever-binding way for him to relinquish his rights. But there have been cases where some irresponsible couple gets pregnant and they're young, and he signs away his rights, and later, when he's older and wiser (and usually married), he decides to go get his rights back. That's not right. It should be a sign away your rights and that's it forever deal.

2) While I do believe the father should have SOME rights, how can we MAKE a woman carry a baby if she doesn't want to? It's not right to make her act as an incubator so the man can have his child. Granted, if they were just doing the deed irresponsibly, I don't think abortion should be the answer either.

See, no hard and fast answers on this one. It's so gray, it's quite difficult to find a good answer.

I'm only in favor of abortion if the mother's life is at risk or the pregnancy is as the result of incest or rape. Period.

Answer 6

If he wants her to abort, and she will not, then I suspect he will want to have nothing to do with the child when it is born. Therefore, he should sign away all parental rights.

If he wants to keep the child, and she wants an abortion, he should do his best to make it easy for her to be persuaded. Offering to marry her will work in a great many cases, especially if he is seriously committed to being a good husband and father. Getting off to such a start is no big deal if they both work at the relationship. Offering to pay her expenses while she carries the child to term, and respecting her wishes as to how close she allows him to be, might work, as well. He can then be a single father, and look for a wife who will accept his child and raise it as her own.

But if she is really adamant that she does not want to have the child, he should see if he can find a surrogate mother and have the fetus implanted in this volunteer instead of being destroyed. The original mother will probably consent to this if he pays all the costs. I doubt that she likes the idea of destroying the fetus per se; she just does not want to be involved in bringing it to term, for whatever reason.

Good luck!

Answer 7

That depends on the situation. It they are husband and wife, then yes, the man should have equal say. It he "knocks her up" in the accepted sense and has no intention of marrying her, then no, he should not have a say at all. Personally, I find abortion for the purpose of birth control to be offensive. In cases of rape, or incest or a very young girl being pregnant, or a mentally incompetent woman being pregnant, then abortion can be considered. Other than that, abortion is not a good answer.

Answer 8

Being female I am kind of biased when I say it should mostly be the woman's choice. However, if he can be a good father then perhaps he should be in charge 100% of the childs care after the birth if she is forced to continue full term.

As for #1 I am usually a "it takes two to play" type person. If he didn't handle the birth control on his end and she got pregnant shame on him, he'll be paying for a good long time. Now that I look at my other answer it does seem to be obviously biased. What can I say, I'm a woman....

Answer 9

Yes I think that would be reasonable & would support that ... unless the woman was raped.

I guess I would be more supportive in case #2. He should know if his partner is going to abort his child, and have some kind of say in that. But I don't feel like she should be compelled to abort her baby just because that's what he wants.

Geesh! That's a good question ...

Answer 10

yes i do believe there should be some kind of legal rights for the male parts
good ? but like everything else ther is gaurenteed controversy
i do believe he should be able to have some kind of say if she wants to abort the child and he doesntbut how do you go about solving the situation, she cant be forced to carry out a pg and he cant bear the child himself. then thers the other side that if he wants to abort th pg and she doesnt then he is likely to be burdened w/childsupport ..... id do wish there was a way to solve things like this but there are always going to ppl who like to cause problems trying to get attention...if they were allowed to say that the woman kept the baby against his will though there would be so many more ppl on gvt ast.and stuff like that pp; are never happy