Should Men have an Opinion on Abortion Rights?
by Abel Kora, May 2, 2021
A topic that has entered hot waters in the sea of politics was whether men should have a say on abortion. Both sides of the spectrum put forth arguments validating their opinion, and in this article, we will be going through them.
To start, we will go through some basic information about abortion. First to define it, "An abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. It uses medicine or surgery to remove the embryo or fetus and placenta from the uterus." On the pro-life side, people believe that abortion is the ending of a life. On the pro-choice side, some people acknowledge that it is life while others don't, but both believe that women should have the right to get an abortion to ease their suffering in a particular circumstance. Life is said to start at the embryo's conception, after fertilization.
We will be looking at the anti-side of whether men should have an opinion on the subject. In one article, Jessica Valentine goes into depth about why men should not have a say on abortion. To put it into better words, she believes men can say whatever they want. "So sure, guys, yammer away all you want. It's a free country." However, she believes that men should not have any power over whether or not women should continue with their pregnancies. She states that men who try to "control" a woman's body are the same people who have no respect for a woman. Valentine says that if that power is given to men, this can put women at risk of potential violence for not complying with men's orders or input. The many dangers that come with men having that power were worse in abusive relationships. Even in relationships that were not abusive, Valentine believed that men's opinions on the topic were still invalid. Her central reasoning supporting her claim that men having that opinion over women diminished that woman's personhood and value as it showed the men had more power over them. Valentine ends her journal with, "Yes, men can have an opinion about abortion. No, they cannot force, coerce, or legally stop a woman from obtaining one. "
Next, we will move on to the pro side of the spectrum. In this part of the article, we will look into an article written by Paul Stark. He starts off his article admitting that men cannot give birth, so they do not know what it feels like to give birth. Their opinion over having abortions would be faulty with their lack of knowledge of giving birth. Stark explains that this is what people call hominem fallacy in reasoning. This talks about how the accuser points out a specific physical trait rather than focusing on the problem or issue. He explains that having a pro-life position does not apply to a specific gender or sex. He explains that men experience abortion by surviving it, performing it, even being hurt by it. Experience does not mean anything as you can also bring up the analogy of war. One could make the claim that no one should have an opinion on the morality of war without actually being a part of one. The idea of not having the ability to have an opinion is also invalid because this would also discourage infertile women from having an opinion.
To wrap it up, both sides of the argument have valid pros and cons. The power resides in the reader of this article. Do you believe that men should have a say on this topic, or do you think they should focus on other issues?
Links & Sources
Life Begins at Fertilization | Princeton
https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/abortion.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/11/men-help-decide-woman-abortion
https://www.mccl.org/post/men-shouldn-t-be-silent-on-abortion