I want to begin by stating that I am against abortion, but I do not argue that it should be illegal. I know that it's going to happen regardless of its legality and should happen in a safe, legal environment and not some janky backdoor abortion clinic (which is what would have to happen if it was illegal). What I'm basically arguing here is that abortion should be not be viewed as empowering or feminist. It should be viewed as it is: despicable, murderous, and irresponsible. We should approach abortion as a last-ditch measure, an unfortunate and heavy-hearted conclusion. It's been said that 50 percent of women that get an abortion are not doing it for the first time--and it seems like it's no wonder why. With the way that pro-choice campaigners tend to present the issue, it looks like women are marching up the clinic and getting abortions left and right, to show Mr. Man just who's boss. Is that really how it is? More importantly, is that really how it should be?
Pro-choice and/or pro-abortion should not be a feminist position. It's actually ANTI-feminist! (And I'll say here that I know that many pro-choice supporters are not "pro-abortion," and that in order to support one's position it's often necessary to take an extreme stance just to get your point across, or whatever, and that's what some of the campaigners are doing, well, whatever. It's still terrible.) The idea of being "pro-abortion" reinforces and perpetuates the idea that a man can help conceive a child and not need to take any responsibility for it, since it's not his body and since he doesn't have to carry it, and we can't tell a woman what to do with her body, etc. Well, remember: it takes two people to create a child--not just the mother.
Every time two people have sex, they are knowingly engaging in an act that runs the (very high) risk of creating a child. Supporting the pro-choice position supports men who think with their penises, who believe that giving child support or (worse,) paying for an abortion is all that's required of them, that they can have as much sex as they want with as many people as they want and not have to take responsibility. Does that sound feminist, sound empowering to you?
The reason that we have so many single mothers in this country isn't because women are actually stupid and don't know how to take the pill or use protection, or that they're actually sluts and have sex with so many people they don't know who the father is, or whatever. It's because of a societal norm that says that men aren't responsible for the children that they create. Pro-choice campaigners help perpetuate this norm by putting all of the weight of deciding whether to abort on the woman, when she isn't the only one who created the child.
Now before anyone blasts me for being male, and for not knowing what I'm talking about, let me tell you: I've been there. I have had a pregnancy scare. I had to make a choice--if she was pregnant, what would we do? I decided that if we were pregnant we were going to raise the child. And yes, I do get to take part in that decision, not just my then-girlfriend, because by being a willing participant in the act we both, together, had to accept the responsibility that if we conceived a child as a result of said act, we would be responsible for raising it. Basically, I'm not going to sit around and let her kill my baby. It was as much my child as hers.
Our entire judicial system is based on the idea that if you perform an action you are responsible for the consequences. Why should sex be any different? Being pro-choice or pro-life isn't even looking at the real issue. Don't have sex if you don't want a kid. This goes out to women as well as men. We're both the problem.
I guess what I'm saying is: we're skirting around the issue. Women (and men) shouldn't be campaigning for pro-choice or pro-life. They should be campaigning for RESPONSIBILITY. Teach your friends, neighbours, children, that having sex creates children. That's how sex was designed. Supporting a loophole that protects MEN, more than women, from dealing with the responsibility of child-bearing is not feminist, not empowering, and overall not responsible.
Thoughts?
Pro-choice and/or pro-abortion should not be a feminist position. It's actually ANTI-feminist! (And I'll say here that I know that many pro-choice supporters are not "pro-abortion," and that in order to support one's position it's often necessary to take an extreme stance just to get your point across, or whatever, and that's what some of the campaigners are doing, well, whatever. It's still terrible.) The idea of being "pro-abortion" reinforces and perpetuates the idea that a man can help conceive a child and not need to take any responsibility for it, since it's not his body and since he doesn't have to carry it, and we can't tell a woman what to do with her body, etc. Well, remember: it takes two people to create a child--not just the mother.
Every time two people have sex, they are knowingly engaging in an act that runs the (very high) risk of creating a child. Supporting the pro-choice position supports men who think with their penises, who believe that giving child support or (worse,) paying for an abortion is all that's required of them, that they can have as much sex as they want with as many people as they want and not have to take responsibility. Does that sound feminist, sound empowering to you?
The reason that we have so many single mothers in this country isn't because women are actually stupid and don't know how to take the pill or use protection, or that they're actually sluts and have sex with so many people they don't know who the father is, or whatever. It's because of a societal norm that says that men aren't responsible for the children that they create. Pro-choice campaigners help perpetuate this norm by putting all of the weight of deciding whether to abort on the woman, when she isn't the only one who created the child.
Now before anyone blasts me for being male, and for not knowing what I'm talking about, let me tell you: I've been there. I have had a pregnancy scare. I had to make a choice--if she was pregnant, what would we do? I decided that if we were pregnant we were going to raise the child. And yes, I do get to take part in that decision, not just my then-girlfriend, because by being a willing participant in the act we both, together, had to accept the responsibility that if we conceived a child as a result of said act, we would be responsible for raising it. Basically, I'm not going to sit around and let her kill my baby. It was as much my child as hers.
Our entire judicial system is based on the idea that if you perform an action you are responsible for the consequences. Why should sex be any different? Being pro-choice or pro-life isn't even looking at the real issue. Don't have sex if you don't want a kid. This goes out to women as well as men. We're both the problem.
I guess what I'm saying is: we're skirting around the issue. Women (and men) shouldn't be campaigning for pro-choice or pro-life. They should be campaigning for RESPONSIBILITY. Teach your friends, neighbours, children, that having sex creates children. That's how sex was designed. Supporting a loophole that protects MEN, more than women, from dealing with the responsibility of child-bearing is not feminist, not empowering, and overall not responsible.
Thoughts?
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