{"id":225937,"date":"2020-06-23T08:29:40","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T13:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=225937"},"modified":"2020-06-22T16:12:38","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T21:12:38","slug":"abortion-human-rights-womens-men-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-human-rights-womens-men-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion is a human rights issue, not a women’s issue. So why don’t men have a say?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Should men have an opinion about abortion? What happens when a father wants to protect the life of his preborn child? Abortion is often presented as \u201cwomen\u2019s empowerment.\u201d The attempted argument to support this line is that women have bodily autonomy<\/a>, the right to determine what happens to their own bodies. According to abortion activists, the fact that women, like all people, have bodily autonomy, means that recognizing the right to life of her child is a violation of the mother\u2019s rights. There are several ways this argument falls short. \u201cBodily autonomy\u201d does not justify abortion, and this demonstrates two things: 1) men should have an opinion about abortion, and 2) the law should recognize a father\u2019s right to defend his preborn child.<\/p>\n

The baby has rights, too<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u201cbodily autonomy\u201d argument assumes that the child in the womb does not have bodily autonomy of her own<\/a>. Abortion activists wrongly pit the mother\u2019s rights against the rights of her child. In pregnancy, the rights of the mother and the rights of her child must both be considered. If the child in the womb were not a human being, then the child would not have rights. But science proves that a preborn child is a human being<\/a> from the moment of conception; therefore, his or her rights must also be considered.<\/p>\n

While pregnancy can carry many inconveniences and even health risks for the mother, pregnancy is also a unique phenomenon that is temporary. There is no comparable ethical situation to pregnancy\u2014certainly not the contrived \u201cfamous violinist\u201d scenario<\/a> dreamed up by abortion activists\u2014because pregnancy is unique. Reducing a unique human situation to the mother\u2019s bodily autonomy\u2014the supposed right to terminate her child at any time for any reason in order to exercise her will over her own body\u2014ignores the facts of the situation. During pregnancy, at least two people, each with the right to life, are intimately connected.<\/p>\n

Because abortion is a human rights issue and not a \u201cwomen\u2019s issue,\u201d having a uterus is not a precondition<\/a> for having an opinion about abortion.<\/p>\n