Should men discuss abortion too?

  Should men have a voice in abortion debate?

Article by Jewa Ian.             

In this 21st century, abortion can be defined as the process of terminating a pregnancy by removing or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus or womb. Miscarriage is an abortion that occurs without intervention. This occurs in approximately 30% to 40% of all pregnancies in women. For a successful and less life threatening abortion, one needs to do it before the 20th week of gestation period. Now there have always been a debate on whether men should have a voice in abortion decisions or not. 

The abortion debate is rarely straightforward. Much of the discussion is coloured with irreconcilable differences between those who accept the availability of abortion and those who do not. Morals, ethics, religious beliefs, rights and a whole list of other variables are used to justify one or another position. The ‘right’ of the male partner to have a say in the decision whether or not to abort an unwanted pregnancy emerges periodically in the debate — and almost invariably in the context of forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy she does not want.

First, I fundamentally disagree that abortion is an issue that only affects women. At a most basic level, this is incorrect – abortion includes the abortion of both male and female babies. But more than that, it is clear that abortion does affect men. How could we possibly think that a woman aborting her male partner’s baby against his wishes would have no effect on him? Or that, conversely, a man who does not want a child and wants the woman to have an abortion, but she refuses and he has to pay 18 years child-support? Clearly, abortion affects men and women. Sure, women are the ones that actually do the aborting, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect men.

But even taking about the idea that only women are affected by abortion, the claim that therefore only women can discuss it evidently fails as a principle. We don’t think that only homosexuals can discuss gay rights, or that only black people can discuss affirmative action, or that only disabled people can discuss equal rights in the workplace. If we want to say that people can only discuss things that are personally relevant to them, we pretty soon end up on a situation where no-one could ever discuss anything.

Historically, men have held political power, and consequently determined the legality of women’s rights over their own reproductive rights. The strongest stakeholders have, for most of history, had virtually no voice in how their rights are determined. If the debate that they are disrupting is only including men, important observations, that might not be obvious to men, could unintentionally be left out of the debate. Speaking for women reinforces the cultural belief that women can’t speak for themselves in a rational intellectual manner.