Pro Choice For Everyone

Equality is a tremendous concern of mine and I feel that in today’s political climate it is seldom done proper justice.   Equality may be a tough notion to get one’s head around since in world of difference it is often difficult to treat equitably two things that seem to be so very different. Equitable has as a synonym a concept that is far easier for us to understand, “fair”. This being said I would like to take a moment to examine a topic of popular debate and controversy: a woman’s right to choose to abort an unborn child.

I will not entertain any argument as to whether or not abortion is ethical, it does not even matter whether it is or is not. I have no desire to give that tired and religiously charged argument any weight whatsoever. What I would like to focus on is the fact that in our efforts to empower a woman; have we not overlooked the other contributor to the fetus in question?

As a man, I have always done my best to treat woman exactly as I would treat any man, this means EXACTLY as I would treat a man. I will not open a door for a strange woman any more often than I will open one for a man who I do not know. A woman deserves no special consideration for her gender and a male deserves no special consideration for his. This is fair. When we discuss abortion I think it would not be unreasonable to obtain a man’s opinion given that the woman’s choice involves him in both a practical and (currently) legal way. 

A woman who chooses to give birth to a child may legally request monies from the man for the support of the child she also has the socially accepted right to expect that the man will take some role in the child’s life, even if that role is only financial. One person’s choice has now become another person’s responsibility whether they like it or not. What if the man in question did not want the child? Both parties are equally liable for the conception of the child (in all cases save rape).

Considering the biological impact and burden on the woman who must bring a child to term, it is fair to say that the final decision should belong to the woman, but her decision must not imply the responsibility of any other party. 

I respect and vigorously support a woman’s reproductive rights but I support a man’s as well. Equality, fairness, freedom all of these things have a tremendous price and require that each and every one of us be ready at any given time to hold complete and absolute responsibility for the decisions we make with the full understanding that we may not ever force another person to make any particular decision or assume any measure of responsibility simply because we wish it to be so.