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Monday, January 22, 2007

Planned Parenthood Supports Involving Men In Pregnancy Decisions?

Today is the annual March for Life in Washington D.C.  In response to that, Planned Parenthood has issued a press release detailing “Five Ways to Prevent Abortion.” I won’t bore you with a lot of details on this self-serving pap, but I did want to point out one “way” that had me laughing out loud given some of the opinions espoused about male involvement in pregnancy decisions by most of Planned Parenthood’s supporters.

3. Increase the involvement of men.

No woman ever made herself pregnant. Yet for centuries, men have ignored their responsibility in preventing unwanted pregnancies. “I’ve got no kids—that I know of” is an all-too familiar male expression.

Fortunately, change is in the air. That change must be encouraged. Many family planning agencies now run programs which help men recognize their equal responsibility in all aspects of sexuality: decision-making, obtaining and using contraception, and handling any crisis which occurs.

Most pro-choice women I’ve talked to believe that men shouldn’t even be allowed to have an opinion on abortion until they’ve grown ovaries, a uterus and the other physical equipment necessary to become pregnant.  To them, pregnancy decisions are the sole province of the woman with the man’s opinion carrying weight only at the discretion of the woman.

I really have to wonder just how committed Planned Parenthood is to this idea of involving men more in the pregnancy decision-making process.  Because recognizing that men should be involved in the process also means recognizing that what the man and woman created is something more than just some clump of cells that is part of the woman’s body.  Something that is new and didn’t exist before.  Something that belongs to both the mother and the father and has rights worth being protected.

If you admit that the mother and father have created something together than what else can that something be but a life?  And thus, what else can abortion be but an ending to that innocent new life?

I’m not quite sure this is a road Planned Parenthood wants to go down.

Comments

Hmmm...This should be interesting.

Zsa Zsa on January 22, 2007 at 11:47 am
Avatar for HG

Yet for centuries, men have ignored their responsibility in preventing unwanted pregnancies. “I’ve got no kids—that I know of” is an all-too familiar male expression.

This is kind of typical—blame the man for not getting involved, not the Women’s rights movement.

HG on January 22, 2007 at 12:19 pm

Even if it is a foreign clump of cells that both of them have created, to acknowlege that the existence of that clump of cells would not have occurred without a man’s intervention would seem to give that male some form of rights above the “Keep your hands off my ovaries” lines from PP.  Planned Parenthood fought spousal notification laws in Casey to demonstrate that even husbands have no legal right to participate in abortion decision making and further, they have fought parental notification too.

If they wanted to decrease the number of abortions, they would encourage abstinence, encourage parental involvement in the abortion decision making for minors, encourage waiting periods and counselling prior to an abortion, and stop the barbaric practice of late term abortions that has significantly cheapened the meaning and definition of what human life is.

Justin B. on January 22, 2007 at 12:21 pm

What I see is that this whole abortion craze is about to implode and there will be an effort to blame the entire thing on men.  I certainly don’t see any changes in basic female logic of ‘what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine’.  No offense intend, Zsa, Zsa.


The Supreme Court is a bunch of black robed tyrants

docdave on January 22, 2007 at 12:39 pm

None taken, Doc.  Won’t this kind of back fire on the it’s my body. I can do whatever I want to get rid of this fetus thing???  I didn’t know the real slogan or lingo the abortionist’s use…

Zsa Zsa on January 22, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Avatar for Robert Perry

:^) Rob, I think they’re talking about responsibility on the part of the man, not anything to do with rights.  It actually turns out, though, that a large portion of abortions already DO involve the man--he advocates it, sadly, as a condition for continuing the relationship. 

So if men were to behave more responsibly, they’re correct that unwanted pregnancies would go down greatly.

The other recommendations?  Well, it’s worth noting that 43 years after the Supreme Court concocted the right to private contraception, and close to 40 years since the schools started teaching sex ed, undesired teen pregnancies are still astonishingly high.  The problem isn’t lack of rubbers or teachers, but rather a lack of respect for sexuality and its power.

Robert Perry on January 22, 2007 at 02:34 pm
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