1 post tagged “abortion”

I just got out of one of my classes and we were discussing abortion. Going to a small Catholic school, you can imagine some of the views held by some people.

Here's my take on abortion: I'm a guy, hence I should not be able to tell a woman what she can or cannot do with her body. The baby cannot sustain a life without the mother, yet the father does not need to be present in the 9 months it takes for a fetus to develop. With all that said, I just feel that I would be outraged if the government or anyone dictated to me what I could or could not do with my body, so I do not feel that that right should be taken from women. I also feel that women use abortion as a last resort, because they are at a desperate point in their lives and have nowhere else to turn. They aren't happily going to get an abortion, and there is much shame felt about getting one. The woman is hurting enough, so she shouldn't be ostracized for making one of the most difficult decisions that she's ever had to make. I'm not saying that there aren't women out there who take advantage of abortion, and I do not agree with those types of women. However, I should not and do not judge based on what women decide to do with their own bodies.

I said all of this during the class discussion today, and I was met with some hostility. One guy in my class said that the woman could not have become pregnant without the man, so the claims on the child's life are just as much the man's as the woman's. I can understand his argument, but the reality is that many men choose to walk away from the pregnancy, and while a man can just walk away from the pregnancy, a woman cannot.

The argument was also brought up that by choosing to have the child, the woman is taking responsibility for her actions to have sex - the "two wrongs don't make a right" argument. I can completely understand this argument, because personally if I was a woman I would choose to keep the child and accept that responsibility. However, as I am not a woman, I cannot in good faith tell a woman how to live her life. It is not up to me, and if you want to get religious, I feel I am playing God by telling a woman what she can or can't do with her body. It's not my choice to make.

I'm not advocating abortion at all - on the contrary, I do not agree with the practice of abortion because I feel every human life is sacred, from conception to natural death. It's the same reason why I am against capital punishment and war. It's not up to me to decide which human lives can be spared life. However, this is a personal belief for myself, and I do not feel that I have the right to control the life of a woman.

Now I must go, and so goes my rant on being pro-choice (which is NOT pro-abortion).

The attached song to this post is by the Verve Pipe, "The Freshmen," which is about an abortion that took place in the life of the lead singer.

07 The Freshmen

The Verve Pipe