What do you think of men passing abortion laws?

[SeeIn2D]

Alright well I'm sure most people in the US and probably some outside know about all of the abortion stuff going on in the US currently. If you don't then essentially the two major parties are divided on the issue of abortion (like many other issues) with the Democrats supporting the right to choice which basically says women have a right to choose whether they get an abortion or not, and the Republicans are supporting the right to life which basically says that women can't get an abortion.

Question: Do you agree that women should be able to choose or do you think that abortion should be illegal?
Question 2: Do you think that men have a right to help pass or stop a law which prevents abortion?

And my part of the argument is that a man should never pass a law about a woman's body simple as that. I obviously know that there are women in the government in both parties, but the people actually passing the laws will be majority male which I don't think is right. And conversely I don't think women should ever have the right to pass a law regarding a man's body. Anyone agree or disagree with this?

Captcha: whole shebang

 

[Frungy]

Lemme just start out by saying that I'm pro-choice. Women should have the right to have an abortion...

However, the U.S. is a democracy and women have the vote. In fact there are more women than men (50.8% female, 49.2% male). If you have a problem with the composition of the elected representatives then you have to pause for a moment and realise that women voted these people into power. They elected them as their representatives and so they delegated to them the power to pass laws on their behalf.

Q1 - Women should be able to choose.
Q2 - If you have a problem with men passing these laws then elect some women!

Finally some food for thought. I live in Japan and an unmarried foreign friend of mine got pregnant. She went to the clinic to get an abortion and was handed a form... which required consent from both the woman AND the man in order to get an abortion. Yup, she couldn't get an abortion unless she got the man's permission too. I was pretty shocked.

 

[Esotera]

This is probably better suited to R&P.

Abortion should be a matter of individual choice, and the men voting on it aren't actually voting as men - they are voting on behalf of all their constituents. You might as well just say that democracy is pointless and only women in a country should be allowed to vote on this issue, at which point you're so near to pro-choice you might as well just make it that in law.

 

[thylasos]

Abortion should be legal and freely available.

If you don't agree with it, don't use it. (Judge not, he who throws the etc...)

 

[Phasmal]

I'm pro-choice.

And I don't think your gender should stop you passing a law, but I do think that when you are discussing something that by definition can never happen to you, some empathy, understanding and sensitivity is needed. And there's where it often goes wrong.

And I too think this belongs in R&P.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I'm pro-choice, along with a lot of people on this forum.

Q1: Well that's obvious given my stance.
Q2: We're all humans, aren't we? Men may not have the same commitment or emotional connection to the baby, so I really can't say, but I don't think barring half of the population from this issue based on that is a good idea.

 

[felbot]

of course abortion should be legal.

and i fail to see what my gender has to do with this, its kinda like saying women cant talk about i dunno, standing up peeing, i mean sure they cant do it, can still talk about it.

on the other hand i fail to see how that would come up in a conversation.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Pro-choice.

Theoretically men should be able to make decisions the same as women, but when all teh decisions seem to be done by panels that are exclusively men...yeah, problem there.

Though, apparently it's a thing to make sure you don't have gay jurors in a trial for a gay person because they'd be biased or something, so by that logic it makes sense. Though, you'd have to come up with gay jurors every time a straight person is on trial as well, and that doesn't seem to happen.

 

[Lilani]

Question: Do you agree that women should be able to choose or do you think that abortion should be illegal?
Question 2: Do you think that men have a right to help pass or stop a law which prevents abortion?

Q1: I think that women should be able to choose.
Q2: I think the issue isn't that men are trying to tell a woman they HAVE to carry a baby to term against their will, since men aren't the only ones who feel that way. The issue is anybody telling a woman they have to carry a baby to term against their will. Trying to make men the issue is only distracting from the debate, and only gives the women on that side of the debate more credit than they deserve. It doesn't matter if a man thinks abortion should be illegal. It doesn't matter if a woman thinks abortion to be illegal. The fact is, somebody wants to make a woman go through something she doesn't have to against her will. And that is the issue at hand.

 

[mad825]

How about make decisions based on intellectual discussions rather than maintain a sexist undertone? What, are men from Mars and women from Venus? No, we're both from bloody Earth.

Ugh, lock and bury this thread.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Oh boy I think I'm going to regret posting *prepares flame shield*

I disagree with abortion personally, mainly because I view an unborn child as having the same rights as a any human. I know that it can be argued that it is not really a human but a foetus or a bunch of cells so can be terminated without a problem however that logic doesn't sit right with me. For children that could be born with debilitating diseases or the birth would pose a risk to the mother, then that is a bit more morally grey for me, but I won't go into detail in this post. As for whether in should be illegal I don't know, I would personally have it limited to only in cases of risk to the mother or severe disabilities in the child. However that would mess create a whole new tangled mess of moral questions, with women who don't want the child and trying to force them to keep the child they don't is not something I could condone. So I guess the laws would have to allow women to choose what they do regardless of my personal feelings on the matter.

I think men should be part of the process of laws regarding abortion just as much as women. I mean they are affected by pregnancies also (not physically obviously), so it would be wrong to completely exclude men from the discussion. I'm not saying men should be able to dictate to women on abortion, but rather view points from both genders on either side of the issue should be considered when drafting up laws.

capctha: I love you

I can feel the love captcha

 

[Lunatic High]

Women should have the choice, its they're body, they're pain, and they're rite

Men should have some say it affects they're lives too

Not everyone is ready to have kids NO MATTER how good a parent they may be, its a simple matter of money right? There are neccessities which MUST be provided for a child to grow up healthily in todays society (I'm talking North Americas basically), basically, education, clothing, medical etc etc. Money is a basic neccesity for happiness it gives you more options in life, and miserable parent tend to raise miserable children.

I think that they should institute a "child rearing license" sooner rather than later.

 

[The Funslinger]

This is probably better suited to R&P.

Abortion should be a matter of individual choice, and the men voting on it aren't actually voting as men - they are voting on behalf of all their constituents. You might as well just say that democracy is pointless and only women in a country should be allowed to vote on this issue, at which point you're so near to pro-choice you might as well just make it that in law.

At least you have the right avatar.

OT: I don't have a problem with men passing laws so much as I do that there's so much as a single culture that idiotic to be against it, let alone that it's as big a taboo as it is these days.

Like guns and drugs, suppress it and it gets forced into the black market. It's not hard to acquire a wire coat hanger after all.

Republican abortion law. Brought to you by Sarah "I'd still be anti-abortion if my daughter was raped" Palin.

Yep, she said that.

 

[JimB]

Do you agree that women should be able to choose or do you think that abortion should be illegal?

I do not think that every single instance of abortion is morally justifiable, but I think attempting to regulate the circumstances under which women are permitted the choice is an unacceptably cruel proposition, and thus I would prefer to risk the unnecessary deaths of children than to inflict American bureaucracy on women who have a legitimate need for a timely medical procedure.

Do you think that men have a right to help pass or stop a law which prevents abortion?

Yes. The law is simply a reflection of the morality of the society it governs, and men are a part of that society, so our voices deserve to be heard. I believe most men speak from a place of profound ignorance on this topic, but welcome to democracy.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

This is probably better suited to R&P.

Abortion should be a matter of individual choice, and the men voting on it aren't actually voting as men - they are voting on behalf of all their constituents. You might as well just say that democracy is pointless and only women in a country should be allowed to vote on this issue, at which point you're so near to pro-choice you might as well just make it that in law.

Correction: They're supposed to be doing that. In reality however, they're more likely to vote their own values rather than the values of their constituents.

 

[Esotera]

[
Correction: They're supposed to be doing that. In reality however, they're more likely to vote their own values rather than the values of their constituents.

Same issue is still there if the politician is female. You can't just draw an arbitrary line on what an elected representative can vote on based on their gender.

 

[The_Lost_King]

Q2 - If you have a problem with men passing these laws then elect some women!

That's like saying if I don't like the president elect a good one! There aren't any good ones. Seriously. both Mitt and Obama suck.

Q1 I don't know. for me it is a case of use protection or just don't have sex in the first place versus what if the protection failed. and the baby is a real human being even as a fetus versus the woman actually has to deal with having a baby she never wanted.
In short: I'm conflicted
Q2 I don't care

 

[Dango]

1. I am pro-choice.

2. If men happen t be the ones in congress they have the right to pass any law they want, no matter how stupid the law is, that's just how the American government works.