Posted on 06/20/2010 6:03:19 PM PDT by Kaslin
Author's note: This piece is co-authored by Jeanne Monahan.
This Father’s Day will be a celebration for dads all over the country, an opportunity for children to thank and honor their fathers. Yet for many men, the memory of involvement in a past abortion, of “cards they will not receive,” will be painful and palpable.
In a debate where the primary focus is a woman’s body and a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry a child to his or her delivery, the “other partner,” the father of the baby, is rarely given consideration, and is often completely disregarded altogether. The question of abortion is myopically women-centric.
Abortion advocates often mock pro-life men. Men are told they shouldn’t speak out because they can never become pregnant. Yet, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to acknowledge that two women cannot a baby make.
Less acknowledged is the fact that this decision deeply impacts the dad, too.
This year three Father’s Day cards will stand prominently on Jerry’s kitchen countertop, telling the wonderful story of the lives of his three grown children. But there is an empty space next to the cards which tells another story that continues to grieve Jerry and his wife, Dayna. Over thirty years ago, Jerry and his then high school sweetheart, Dayna, chose to abort two of their children.
Jerry deeply empathizes with any man who has taken the life of another human and lives daily with that burden and emotional trauma. The negative psychological impact of abortion on women has been well publicized, but less so have been the effects of abortion on men.
In researching the topic, we found a variety of books, websites and support groups dedicated to male post-abortion trauma, as well as a number of studies on the issue. One study reported that 82 percent of male parents of a recently aborted baby (ranging from two days to 37 months) experienced depression. Another study found that men experienced anxiety, helplessness, guilt, and a dual sense of responsibility and regret during an abortion. An additional study reported that many biological fathers need professional support in dealing with abortion and its impact on relationships.
According to Guy Condon and David Hazard, authors of Fatherhood Aborted:
The Profound Effects of Abortion on Men, post-abortive men suffer from a whole host of problems, including relationship struggles, inability to trust friends, rage, addictions and sexual compulsions, sleeplessness, bad dreams, nightmares, sexual dysfunction, depression, fear of failure, fear of rejection, and loneliness.
Fortunately, Jerry and Dayna’s story did not have a negative ending. They married after high school, but continued to be haunted by the unspoken grief and burden of the two children they had aborted. Ten years and three children later, they came to a crisis in their marriage where they needed to honestly confront the lingering effects of the two abortions. There were unresolved issues but they found helpful resources to successfully work through them and make peace with the past.
Having found hope in their grief and regret, they deeply wanted others to avoid making these same mistakes. They felt the best way they could do so would be to support young people facing similar tough decisions, and decided to start a pregnancy resource center in Prattville, Ala., in this effort. Having opened its doors in 1992, “Grace Place” PregnancyResource Center continues to thrive and serve young mothers and fathers experiencing an unplanned pregnancy even today.
Jerry and Dayna helped to start Grace Place to share truth about abortion, to give hope in situations that appear hopeless and to help restore the lives of men and women broken by abortion. They also discovered that the process helped complete the healing in their marriage and family.
An estimated 50 million abortions have been performed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. For each of those 50 million babies, there is a father. Even adjusting those numbers to allow for men who father more than one aborted child, the count of post-abortion men in America is easily 30 million. This Father’s Day let us honestly engage men in the conversation about abortion and its impacts on everyone involved. There remain significant, long-term consequences of Father’s Day cards that will not come this week … all across America.
If both men AND women could keep their legs closed until they were married and ready to have children, it wouldn’t be a problem.
That’s what I did and I’m not a rocket scientist.
Exactly.
"Dating" these days (as opposed to what was called "dating" 50 years ago) doesn't mean getting to know someone through an extended period of social activities together (dinner, movies, sport/entertainment events, a kiss under the porch light, etc.) with an eye toward the possibility of the formal commitment of marriage. Instead, "dating" (not even "exclusive" dating) means full sexual intercourse, often without protection.
It's strange that most modern men approach a woman--even in a very casual relationship--with these demands and expectations, and then they are so surprised at the resulting pregnancy. I don't think this surprise is because sex education isn't being taught, I think it's because marriage isn't being taught.
My cousin’s ex-girlfriend had an abortion and randomly told him about it much later.
THanks to both of you.
Describing a man as “just a sperm donor” is objectification.
It cheapens human life, just like describing a woman as “just a piece of @$$.”
A lot of life’s problems in this area could be avoided by recognizing a few very simple truths: women sell sex, and men are the buyers. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with that, as long as the price is high enough: true love, marriage, a lifetime of commitment.
Problems arise when it’s sold cheaply, or given away. The woman is perceived as stupid, or a slut; the man is seen as a genius.
Very good point and well said.
I am not argueing about the morality of abortion, I think it is wrong.
What I am saying is when a man is given rights to a child without the benefits of marriage, it cheapens marriage and eventualy eradicates marriage and thus, social stability.
I am not arguing the morality of abortion, I think it is wrong.
Women are more than donors if the child is grown in her body. Men have little physical cost to pregnancy and childrearing. Marriage is the door that has traditionally given men legal access to their children. Marriage is more important to society and commitment to chldren’s well being than any other institution.
Men need to keep it zipped until they are married.
I think it’s because marriage isn’t being taught.
You understand what I am trying to say!
Marriage is not being taught because marriage has been marginalized and has become irrelevent in the face of “rights”.
A lot of life’s problems in this area could be avoided by recognizing a few very simple truths: women sell sex, and men are the buyers. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with that, as long as the price is high enough: true love, marriage, a lifetime of commitment.Problems arise when it’s sold cheaply, or given away. The woman is perceived as stupid, or a slut; the man is seen as a genius.
The man would be less of a genius if he had no access or claim to children of marriageless sex or of adultery. Both men and women would be seen as stupid sluts.
Thank you so much, Kaslin.
You’re welcome
And thank you, tet68, mrsixpack36, Controlling Legal Authority and Philo1962.
Not all men are inherently without conscience or consideration, and I see it as unfair to paint with the broad brush that you do.
Was the fetus/baby your cousin’s?
Here’s a flaw in your theory: a married woman may abort her husband’s child, the law allows it, society does not condemn her for it and because it’s *her body*, he has no say so whatever, but is left to grieve alone.
Not all men are inherently without conscience or consideration, and I see it as unfair to paint with the broad brush that you do.
I did not say that this is a good or correct law. Married men have interest in their wives pregnancy. I never said that men are without a conscience, I said that they should wait for marriage and keep it zipped. In my perfect world an unmarried man has no claim on an infant.
Yup. He wondered why the hell she would tell him, long after.
It really made him think about the issue.
Sounds like she was confessing, to get it off her chest. But, was this an attempt to hurt your cousin?
Amen! That, plus a great picture, would make a dynamite billboard.
If the man has no rights over whether the child is born, then he should have no responsibilities at all towards the child either.
There was a scene in the movie "The Time Traveler's Wife" where the guy decides to have a vasectomy because he couldn't deal with his wife's miscarriages. The wife in the movie treats it as an unforgivable offense against her rights. I couldn't help thinking, that if the script had had her deciding to be sterilized, women would have been outraged of the guy had objected to her exercising her reproductive choice.
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