Should men have a say in the abortion debate?(hurl alert)

BBC News ^ | 18th May 2019 | Ritu Prasad

[Ennis85]

Most of the US state laws banning or severely restricting access to abortions have been voted on by male politicians. Should men have the right to rule on an issue that impacts women so intimately?

The corridors leading up to the Alabama Senate are lined with black-and-white photographs of past legislative sessions - each framed poster like a yearbook page from a distinctly male-only school.

But inside the dim public gallery, looking down onto the Senate floor, many of the seats are filled by women. They are young and old, some in suits and some in bright shirts with pro-choice slogans emblazoned across the front.

They watch the drama play out in the chamber below, as a handful of Democrats and an even smaller number of women make clear their outrage over the abortion ban that will pass in just a few hours, and in a day, will become law.

The activists next to me in the gallery laugh and gasp with each argument and reply. Some shout an 'Amen!' in agreement as the debate continues.

When a female lawmaker steps up to the microphone, she says: We do not police men's bodies the way we police women's - and this decision about an issue concerning women so intimately is being made almost entirely by men.

Though women make up 51% of Alabama's population, its lawmakers are 85% male. There are only four women in the 35-seat Alabama Senate, and they are all Democrats.

Outside the stark white walls of the State House on Tuesday night, however, women were in the majority. Groups of pro-choice supporters chanted for hours in the courtyard, holding signs calling for abortion freedoms, for women alone to decide what happens to their own bodies.

Delaney Burlingame, one of the young pro-choice activists

[Mrs. Don-o]

Decision? Not when it comes tollife or death. There's no "decision," since neither the woman nor the man, nor both of them together, has a moral right to destroy the child.

Their offspring is their child, but not their property. Human beings cannot be property. We decided that via a Civil War over 100 years ago.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I understand what you're saying about the man not having a choice in the abortion question, but wouldn't say there's "no" guilt on the man's part.

A man who deposits 300 million live sperm into the genital tract of a fertile woman who might be abortion-minded, cannot be said to have made his choices with true due diligence.

I understand the point that he cannot be held responsible for her choices, but he is responsible for his own choice, which was to engage in sexual contact which has a known causal relationship to human procreation.

This is not a trivial choice. It doesn't just engage him for a moment or a night, but potentially for the rest of his life, and into eternity.

[mumblypeg]

Bingo.
If it’s solely the woman’s choice to abort, then shouldn’t she pay for her own abortion?
And conversely, isn’t it also solely the woman’s choice to bear the child? So shouldn’t she pay for its support if she chooses no further involvement by the father ?

Reminds me of that old Peggy Lee song : Get Outta Here, and Get Me Some Money, Too.

Perhaps if men— and taxpayers— made these women live up to their own slogans, ie “Her body, her choice,” women would be more choosy BEFORE a pregnancy occurs.

[Lopeover]

If he is consciously aware. Many are not or ever will be while alive on the earth.

[a fool in paradise]

Should illegal immigrants be able to protest and even vote in America?

Or should the decision of what to do about our border be reserved for legal citizens of this nation?

[Anima Mundi]

They already did when they decided Rowe v. Wade?

[BookmanTheJanitor]

So, it’s her baby when she wants to kill it? But, it’s his when she wants money (child support) for it?

[Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi]

If that is their line of reasoning, use it against them: women have no right to make decisions in matters pertaining to national defense, the military, or national defense since those are matters that directly affect men.

[AzNASCARfan]

If I see or hear the argument made again, I will just ask them if they are talking about Roe Vs Wade... because it could not possibly be the Alabama law. since that bill was sponsored by a woman and also signed into law by another woman... It was Roe Vs Wade that was decided by an all male consensus.