Posted on 01/21/2002 11:26:40 AM PST by truthandlife
As people on both sides of the abortion debate gather in Washington this week to mark the 29th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, there's an ongoing effort to examine why women have abortions in the first place. Some say men are pivotal in the decision women make.
"It's almost a unanimous statement...among all [women who have had an abortion] that they felt like they had no choice," observes Wendy Wright, spokesperson for Concerned Women for America.
That's ironic, Wright said, considering that the entire abortion movement was based on the idea of choice.
"But they feel they have no choice because their boyfriend, their husband [or] their parent is forcing them into it, telling them that they have to have this abortion, that they're not going to support them if they don't," said Wright, a pro-life activist who performs outreach work to women entering abortion clinics.
A 1998 survey conducted by the liberal Guttmacher Institute of 1,900 women who were seeking abortions found that number one reason for their choice was either that they couldn't afford it or were unready for the responsibility. Forty-two percent of women cited one of these reasons.
Other reasons given included concern about life changes (16 percent), trouble in the relationship with the baby's father or fear of single parenthood (12 percent) or lack of maturity/too young (11 percent).
The Guttmacher Institute characterized most of these reasons as "social problems." Wright traces it back to the father.
"Again, it does still go back to the fact that the abortion isn't something they wanted; it's that they felt they couldn't cope, that they couldn't finish their college career [or] advance in their career," said Wright. "Human nature is [that] she's going to be dependent on the man; and if he doesn't offer the support to give life to her child, then she's not going to feel very likely she can do it on her own."
An analysis by Catholics For Choice seems to support that conclusion. "Study after study has shown that in many countries of the world, women who have abortions would have continued that pregnancy if circumstances had been different." It's because many women who become pregnant unexpectedly are poor and feel they cannot provide a decent life for a child, the group says. And too often, "men are not prepared to love and commit to women and children."
Olivia Gans, a pro-life activist, agrees with Wright that men play a pivotal role. Gans herself had an abortion in 1981, before devoting her life to pro-life activism the next year.
"The single most important, powerful factor in the decision women make [according to a growing body of research] is the attitude of her partner, the baby's father," said Gans. "Eighty-percent of the decision is, in her mind, established based on his reaction."
In modern times, women actually expect more involvement from their partners in child-rearing, said Gans. If instead he urges the woman to have an abortion to stay together as a couple or says, "'I didn't want you to get pregnant; I have no interest in this; you deal with it; [or] it's your decision, you do whatever you want, I'll just do whatever you tell me to do,'" said Gans, women often experience those responses as a form of isolation and rejection.
Gans believes that the activism and rhetoric on women's freedom to choose has taught men that "the noble thing to do...is to say, 'well, honey, I'll drive you there.'"
In fact, the president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League may have made a different choice if her husband had been supportive of her own pregnancy, according to Wright.
"In the early '70s, [Kate Michelman] had three kids, her husband left her, and she found herself pregnant," said Wright. "That's why she had an abortion. She was a single parent; she couldn't cope. If she had had someone around who would have supported her, she probably would not have been this crusader for abortion rights."
1. The core of manhood is fatherhood. No man can forego his right to protect his own children, from conception forward, without losing his raison d'etre, his very soul.
2. The antipathy towards fatherhood illustrated by yourself and others correlates directly with an antipathy towards the very lives of innocent prenatal babies. These twin antipathies are flip sides of the same coin.
3. So it is that Feminists For Life is the only feminist site on the net which has anything positive to say about fathers, or men in general for that matter. The mainstream, pro-abort feminist sites are virulently anti-male. That's very, very easily evidenced by simply going to any of them (like now.org) and running terms like dad or father on their internal search engines. You get a ton of articles; all unbelievably negative.
Thus, the correlation between being anti-fatherhood and being anti-prenatal-baby is quite clear.
I am one of the few people in the world who refuses to stereotype women or stereotype men.
Simply put, I recognize that the percentages of each that are good will be about equal...and the percentages of each who are bad are about equal.
Why?
Because good and bad are not rooted in gender, they are rooted in thought and action.
And despite the efforts of a few who would rather twist and obfuscate reality rather than acknowledge it, my highest allegiance in life is to life itself.
And to a rational dissemination of the facts, uncolored by misplaced excuses, or the rather sexist notion that one gender is less capable of murder than the other. Both genders are equally capable of it, and their victims suffer just as much.
If a woman willfully aborts an innocent prenatal baby, she is 100% morally liable for so doing. Just as much as Christian Longo, the guy who killed his kids. No less.
I advocate equality.
No excuses for the women who kill kids.
No excuses for the men who kill kids.
And not one single drop of sympathy for women who kill, or for men who kill.
My sympathy is with their victims only.
Gee Doctor, I have not read all of your posts but you string words together so well I never would've guessed you're a psychotic. Maybe we need a few more psychotics. Some of us sane people don't write so meaningfully. On the other hand, maybe I'm psychotic too because I pretty much agree with the post I am replying too. And I figure anything I might disagree with would probably turn out to be a matter of semantics that we could get past.
Sounds like a medical miracle.
If she had had someone around who would have supported her, she probably would not have been this crusader for abortion rights.
So why didn't she start a crusade to provide support for women, and their children, who were in a situation as bad as hers had been?
Back to the medical miracle, a woman's or a man's right to choose normally starts long before a choice for or against abortion is necessary. If they'd get the earlier choices right, a lot of the later problems would not materialize. We'd still discuss cases where there wasn't a choice and so forth, but the problem set would be smaller.
Part of the problem is people who want to change the outcome of choices they already made. There are some things for which one does not get a "do over."
My contentions, positions, and feelings, as expressed on this thread and elsewhere, and as best summarized in my post #41 above, are in synch with the deepest reality there is or will ever be in all of Creation: a parent's love for their children.
Above all else, there is this. God loves His Children, we love ours.
And so we fight to protect our own.
"Psychotic"?
Only if fatherhood itself is.
Only if following the life-affirming path of the Father of us all is.
Tossing out words like "psychotic" or "rant" or such are meant for one thing and one thing only:
To shut men down.
I won't be shut down.
The day that I stop defending a father's right to save his own will be the day that I will have abandoned God Himself.
So.... let's see if I've got this right.
I will stop fighting abortion when it is dead or I am.
Is it realy that hard for you, and others like you, to see the difference?
Men play a part in pregnancy, a key and pivotal part. The only Man who plays a "Key Role" in abortion is the murderer with a medical degree who runs the abortion 'clinic'.
Other than that, Abortion is the sole domain of the woman.
Tell me again how a woman gets pregnant without a man? It is completely within the power of men to bring a halt to abortion. The vast majority of women will not abort their offspring when they are supported in marriage.
A woman can terminate her rights of being a parent by either killing her unborn child. By all means as much as you women scream equal rights extend that right to the man as well. Let them make that decision to terminate their rights as a father. At least the fathers are not killing anyone.
Yes, I am a lady. And modern women are the main reason I have few lady friends. And that is just fine by me. You all just about disgust me. Grow up!
I do expect that and I believe men should be held to a high standard in this matter. After all, without his decision to engage in irresponsible sex, there is no baby.
"Again, it does still go back to the fact that the abortion isn't something they wanted; it's that they felt they couldn't cope, that they couldn't finish their college career [or] advance in their career," said Wright. "Human nature is [that] he's going to be dependent on the woman; and if she doesn't offer the support to give life to his child, then he's not going to feel very likely he can do it on his own."
I know I know..You will say. But it is not a life he is supporting. Then I guess he had nothing to do with it ..
Does that make you mad that a man would use the same excuse as a woman when she does not want to become a parent? Good.....Exchange the gender in the following sentence...
Human nature is [that] she's going to be dependent on the man; and if he doesn't offer the support to give life to her child, then she's not going to feel very likely she can do it on her own."
"Again, it does still go back to the fact that the abortion isn't something they wanted; it's that they felt they couldn't cope, that they couldn't finish their college career [or] advance in their career," said Wright. "Human nature is [that] she's going to be dependent on the man; and if he doesn't offer the support to give life to her child, then she's not going to feel very likely she can do it on her own."
Does that make you mad that a man would use the same excuse as a woman when she does not want to become a parent? Good..... Exchange the gender in the same sentence...
Human nature is [that] he's going to be dependent on the woman; and if she doesn't offer the support to give life to his child, then he's not going to feel very likely he can do it on his own."
I know I know..You will say. But it is not a life he is supporting. Then I guess he had nothing to do with it .. The abortion decision creates a system of irresponsibility in both sexes. The difference is...A woman can say I do not want to be pregnant..Kill it. A man can say, I don't want to be a father and well that is just to bad. The man is stuck with years of child support and harrassment because the lady did not protect herself.
It all boils down to responsibility. Women get some. Stop being so subserviant to men's desires. If you are strong act it, if you are independent prove it. If you are not weak, don't look like a victim all the time.
All I'm saying is that women can't get pregnant on their own. Even if she throws herself at him, there will be no baby if he says no.
Responsibility? Let's try this. In the Catholic Church if just ONE partner, male or female, practices birth-control, and the other is aware of it, then they are BOTH guilty of birth control (at least it used to be that way). So, they both are living in sin.
IF the couple agree to an abortion, then they are BOTH guilty.
I don't like the idea of the biological father not being informed of a pending abortion, or not being considered. Yes, I agree the father should have a right to be involved in whatever action concerning abortion is contemplated. It's his unborn child too.
sw
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