{"id":204220,"date":"2019-06-17T15:37:44","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T20:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=204220"},"modified":"2019-06-15T12:56:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T17:56:22","slug":"fatherhood-crisis-abortion-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/fatherhood-crisis-abortion-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatherhood in crisis? Outlawing abortion might help."},"content":{"rendered":"
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In an article published in USA Today<\/a>, lawyer and opinion commentator Thomas Wheatley argues that men must be held accountable, not only for their role in abortion<\/a>, but also for the crisis in fatherhood that he says has left women in desperate situations and vulnerable to abortion messaging. A cultural crisis in fatherhood and male responsibility, according to the author, is at the heart of the abortion problem in our society today. Wheatley argued, \u201cRestoring fatherhood \u2014 nature\u2019s built-in complement to motherhood \u2014 is what is needed. And it starts by expecting more, legally and socially, from our men.\u201d<\/p>\n

After lamenting the crisis in fatherhood, Wheatley arrives at two proposed solutions: (1) change cultural norms for men; (2) change the law to punish bad male behavior. With respect to his first point, Wheatley argues that we need a change in cultural norms for fathers:<\/p>\n

When was the last time an absent father faced consequences \u2014 be it in the form of physical scarring, loss of career advancement or loss of social status \u2014 that matched those of a single mother? When was the last time an absent father had to endure the humiliating and disapproving stares of random passersby, or the hurtful comments of someone who has no idea how hard it is for one person to do a two-person job?<\/em><\/p>\n

The thrust of the article is encouraging and refreshing.\u00a0Yet the author may also be underplaying the role that decades of legalized abortion has had in creating the cultural mess he rightly laments. The so-called right to abortion on demand, created by five justices as a constitutional right in 1973, has radically changed the social incentives and structures around fatherhood. A society that legalizes the killing preborn babies facilitates male irresponsibility, misogyny, and oppression of women.\u00a0The fact that men haven\u2019t faced these kinds of consequences is due in large part to the very fact of legalized abortion.<\/p>\n

READ: Men should have the right to abort fatherhood, says Swedish group<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Legalized abortion actually helps create the crisis of fatherhood by offering abortion as a legal, good, and socially acceptable way to avoid fatherhood and male responsibility. It even allows men to pressure women into \u201cdealing\u201d with their \u201cproblems\u201d through the violence of abortion. Far from helping empower women, legalized abortion makes it easier for men to oppress, pressure, and\u00a0force women<\/a> to subject themselves to the violence and violation of abortion, rather than men having to take responsibility.<\/p>\n