I don’t know how many times someone has tried to shut up another person with something along the lines of “you are a man so you can’t say anything against abortion”, or “you haven’t had an abortion so you can’t talk about it”. It seems to me that this is total nonsense, and signals a strong unwillingness to engage in debate. It is almost like saying to the abolitionists of slavery: “you are not allowed to say anything about slavery, for you are not a slave-owner/[slave]“.
Here is a link to a post by “BadCatholic” with six reasons why men should have a say against abortion.
the difference between any man and many women is that as a result of society’s decisions, women may be required to accept the unwanted presence of another human being within their own, experience major physical impacts as a result and then face considerable discomfort or surgical intervention at the end of the process.
This does not mean men do not have the right to an opinion on the morality of abortion. But to ignore this glaring difference as the post and link do is unlikely to win many to the pro-life cause. The Catholic pro-life position depends on arguing that fertilised eggs,embryos and fetuses have 1) a right to life and 2) a right to occupy the body of another human, even if their host does not want them there.
Those potentially unwilling other humans have a status in the debate which permanently childless women and men do not.
Werahiko,
The Catholic pro-life position depends on arguing that fertilised eggs,embryos and fetuses have 1) a right to life and 2) a right to occupy the body of another human, even if their host does not want them there.
That baby did not force itself into the body of the host as you put it, it came there at the invitation … be it unintentional invitation of both of its parents maybe just that of the father in the case of rape … what gives either one or both of those parents the right to kill that yet unborn child?
experience major physical impacts as a result and then face considerable discomfort or surgical intervention at the end of the process. Having experienced both of these with the birth of both of my sons, I assure you that it is not the horrible ordeal that you seem to imply ….. am sure that many other mothers would share my feelings … the joy that comes with bringing another soul into life that will continue through eternity is really something … there is always the possibility of adoption if their circumstances makes them feel that it would not be possible for them personally to care for or to bring the chid up.
shalom,
Mrs Mac
Mrs Mac I was addressing the issue of whether men and women have a different status when expressing a view on abortion. I think they do. My point about the catholic position depending on arguing that the fetus has a right to occupy the body of its mother was put forward in that context. You proceeded to make that argument, and i think it has greater strength than if you were Mr Mac. You reinforced this point by arguing from personal experience unavailable to men. Thanks for responding.