SHANNON KELLY
Perspectives Editor
Some parents forget to give their children the “sex talk,” but by college even those who missed out should have been enlightened. If not and they go to Pepperdine, they’re still up the creek since here, the letters “s,” “e” and “x” are rarely said in sequence and the actual act is a major offense (especially on campus). So for those who missed health class, whose parents wimped out and who have never heard the word “sex” on campus, here is the shortened G-rated version: no stork. Reproduction involves one woman and one man.
But, amid anti-abortion advocacy and passionate protests it’s clear how some might forget that a man has anything to do with reproduction. The dialogue only involves the mother and the child.
The familiar layers of the abortion controversy are a woman’s right to choose, the unborn child’s right to life, and the government’s role in banning or limiting abortion. For all the words spoken and all the rights being discussed, it’s ridiculous that the vital second half of the reproductive duo is almost completely ignored.
The National Center for Men has stepped in by re-introducing their gender to abortion matters with the “Roe vs. Wade … for Man’’ suit filed March 9, asking that “women be required to share reproductive freedom with men.”
This case is a necessary equalizer for an imbalance in human rights issues. Although some women may confuse men for dogs and pigs, the fact remains, they are actually human and they too deserve rights, even in the reproductive realm.
The case’s details and exact purpose remain unpublicized and unclear, so as it stands the only thing it has done is encourage thoughtful discussion.
Absolute individual responsibility is vital, and the best standard for Americans. People should not be telling others how to make personal, life-changing decisions. Some women make horrible choices with heartbreaking outcomes, but her choice is her own and her life is her own. Since what she does has no effect on anyone but her child or its father, it is nobody else’s place to affect her life by toying with her right to choose.
There is a difficult, yet crucial line that must be drawn to preserve the individual rights and appropriate responsibility of both the man and the woman in this situation.
In the first of two possible scenarios, the necessity of protecting the woman does override any obligation to offering the man say in the matter. Although a woman has a moral responsibility to, at least, alert the man to her pregnancy before aborting his child, unfortunately, there is nothing the man can do if he wants the child and the woman doesn’t. It is ultimately her choice, as it should be. The man isn’t the one who has to endure nine months of pregnancy, painful labor or the mother’s unique emotional agony of putting an unwanted child up for adoption.
In the second scenario, however, there is an opportunity to give men the prerogative to make a choice through some kind of financial protection. As it stands, if a woman decides to have a child against the man’s wishes, he’d still be forced to provide her with child support. Even if, on day one of the pregnancy, he tells the woman he’s financially unable to support their child, all he can do is bite his tongue and expect to be signing future checks he can’t afford.
On the other hand, if the man is financially and emotionally capable of supporting a child that he does want, the woman can abort his baby if doing so better fits her life plan. Once again, biting his tongue is his only option.
Being fair to both parties would have to involve legal documents confirming both parents’ decisions early in the pregnancy. Dated signatures showing when the man was alerted to the pregnancy, along with his decision whether or not to support the child, would finally give him a deserved role in such a life-altering decision.
Lawful pregnancy contracts might sound cold, but when finances and rights are at stake, a couple of signatures are actually better in the long run.
Of course paperwork and painful decisions are quite avoidable — with a condom (but good luck finding one at Pepperdine).
03-16-2006