Reason #613 why I hate our society

[entropic]

"[Ohio] legislators have submitted a bill that would give fathers of unborn children a final say in whether or not an abortion can take place."

I'm just going to point to karjack's essay about this, because it's far more clear and well written than anything I'd come up with.

Comments

[bonesbaby33]

Wow, I am not bored enough to read that long of a rant, lol, but I guess I just wanted to challenge the "Rights? What rights?" idea. What if a couple is married, trying for a child, the woman gets pregnant, and changes her mind and wants an abortion? I mean, if a pregnancy isn't really accidental (I know there's no way to prove it either way, but still), why shouldn't the father have a right to help decide whether to keep the baby? I'm assuming this is aimed toward preventing abortions, right? The paternity test thing sounds a little intense and expensive, but it makes sense. There are problems with the bill, but I don't think it's fair for a woman to get an abortion if the father wants the baby, especially if, in the case that the mother doesn't want to support it, the father does. It seems to me that the fathers of unborn children that don't want the mothers aborting the child are the same guys who want to support, or help support, the baby and maybe mother

[alibi_factory]

I agree. There's a lot of problems with it, though, which will alienate people they could have otherwise had on their side. A bill that gave fathers some say over abortion would be (imo) a good thing, but the 'no father, no abortion' thing is transparently just a way to make abortion illegal. Really, it should be that the absence of an opinion amounts to a consent, because if they did want the child, they'd make themselves known.

[bonesbaby33]

That's true.

definite tl;dr potential here ;)

[entropic]

The issue of abortion seems to be centered around juggling three sets of rights: the rights of the woman, the rights of the man, and the rights of the fetus. I feel that the worth of a person comes from their actions in the past and in the present, and that any potential actions in the future don't count because there is no way of telling what they are. So to me, the woman and the man are worth more as people than the potential life of the fetus, and I have no moral qualms about giving their rights precedence by having the choice of an abortion available. Deciding where the rights of the man begin to override the rights of the woman and vice versa is where things get tricky

[psychopompos]

AUUUUUUUUUGH!!!!

[entropic]

Shit like this terrifies me, because there is no way I'm ever going to be cruel enough to pass my genetics on to another human being. Especially because while I understand that pregnancy and giving birth are wonderful and natural things, the thought of either happening to me creeps me out to the point of making my skin crawl. I also have absolutely no maternal instincts, and I find being around children highly annoying at best. So if I have any say in the matter whatsoever, I'm never going have or raise any kids, because I don't want to go to jail for throwing the baby against the wall when it won't stop crying. The fact that so many men are determined to chip away at choices I can make about it is scary on so many levels.

[psychopompos]

No shit. Welcome back to the Dark Ages, I suppose.

I wholly agree with you on children - I find them the most irritating creatures in the world.