This is the second part of a three-part series outlining my position in the abortion debate. Please also read Part 1: Pre- and Post-Conception Birth Control and Part 3: Valuating Human Life and Liberty.
It is all too often forgotten in the abortion debate that no woman can "accidentally" create life. A woman CAN find herself unintentionally pregnant, but it never a situation that she created all by herself. Women create life only with the help of men, and yet the woman alone is expected to selflessly and willingly devote the better part of a year of HER life to developing another life inside herself, even if that was not her intention when she engaged in a certain physical act with a man.
As for the responsibility of the man who contributed to any such unintentional pregnancy, it should be clearly noted that the father's "legal obligation" to support a child is not in any way comparable to the psychological and physiological experience of a mother, even if she were to give the child up for adoption. And if she decides to rear the child her burden is only that much more life-changing. Whereas the father is only burdened by a financial obligation. It is a deeply seeded double standard and the anti-abortionists cannot rightly justified the inequity of the situation.
A woman should never be saddled with the responsibility of gestating, delivering (and probably caring for) a new life when that was not her intention. Many women seeking abortions are doing so because their birth control failed. Most humans, regardless of their gender, do not set out with the intention to procreate when they engage in coitus. Even though the majority of women who seek abortions did indeed willingly have sex, their intention may never have been to procreate. This is the reality in our society: people having sex, more often than not, are doing it for fun or because of some void in their personal life, and not to create new life. Simply because of our wombs, why must females be the only ones held "morally" responsible for the outcome of such indiscretions?
Every woman who engages in sexual intercourse is not necessarily prepared to put her own wants and desires aside in order to selflessly mother babies. But unintended pregnancies happen, sometimes even when precautions are taken, and such a sacrifice should be forced upon no one, regardless of whether or not they have a womb. It has never been forced upon a man, and it is physically impossible for a man to experience the psychological and physiological upheaval that a woman experiences during pregnancy. When a woman is forced to go through with an unintended pregnancy she is, in effect, being punished for being a member of the child-bearing sex. There is nothing moral or just in this.
Next up, Part 3: Valuating Human Life and Liberty
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