In America, we expect that even if parents aren’t married, that both mother and father are expected to help in the care of the child. This most often leads to a situation in which a child will live with their mother and the father will have regular visitation with the child and also be expected to pay child support. It it this expectation of financial support that many say complicates the issue of abortion.
Kanye West wrote a song about a gold digger who purposefully got herself pregnant by a wealthy man so that she “got one of your kids she got you for 18 years." And while most people do not reach this rare situation, it does tap into the root of a problem. If a woman becomes pregnant and a man doesn't want the child, is it really fair that he be forced to pay for a child he doesn’t want? After all, he doesn’t really have much choice in the matter. No woman would be forced to raise and care for a child she didn’t want. Women are now given a choice in whether or not they can or want to care for a child. Isn’t a double standard that we don’t extend that same right to men?
Life simply isn’t fair. We want to find a clean, simple answer in which everyone wins. But the issue of abortion and unwanted pregnancy is a messy, complicated issue in which there are no easy outs and answers. While we have striven for equality between sexes, the truth is that there will never be true equality because it’s impossible. Is it unfair that women now have a choice in whether or not they want to have a child that men aren’t always given? Yes. Is it unfair that when something goes wrong with a child, it’s the mother who is held responsible or that most women now face a choice between career and childbearing that most men will never have to deal with? Life is inherently unfair.
While optimally the choice of what to do should be agreed upon by both the father and mother, if that isn’t possible, then it is still the woman’s body that carries the fetus. It still becomes ultimately the woman’s choice.
Kanye West wrote a song about a gold digger who purposefully got herself pregnant by a wealthy man so that she “got one of your kids she got you for 18 years." And while most people do not reach this rare situation, it does tap into the root of a problem. If a woman becomes pregnant and a man doesn't want the child, is it really fair that he be forced to pay for a child he doesn’t want? After all, he doesn’t really have much choice in the matter. No woman would be forced to raise and care for a child she didn’t want. Women are now given a choice in whether or not they can or want to care for a child. Isn’t a double standard that we don’t extend that same right to men?
Life simply isn’t fair. We want to find a clean, simple answer in which everyone wins. But the issue of abortion and unwanted pregnancy is a messy, complicated issue in which there are no easy outs and answers. While we have striven for equality between sexes, the truth is that there will never be true equality because it’s impossible. Is it unfair that women now have a choice in whether or not they want to have a child that men aren’t always given? Yes. Is it unfair that when something goes wrong with a child, it’s the mother who is held responsible or that most women now face a choice between career and childbearing that most men will never have to deal with? Life is inherently unfair.
While optimally the choice of what to do should be agreed upon by both the father and mother, if that isn’t possible, then it is still the woman’s body that carries the fetus. It still becomes ultimately the woman’s choice.
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