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Protest at Notre Dame: AP Photo/Joe Raymond
A recent Gallup poll revealed that American opinion on abortion has shifted. For the first time in about 15 years, a majority of Americans (51 percent) consider themselves pro-life. (See full story here).
Just a year ago, only 44 percent were pro-life. Further, for the first time in a decade, more men are opposed to abortion than women, at 54 percent versus 49 percent.
This may come as disturbing news to some. I used to blame various restrictions on abortion and reproductive health on partisan politics and the Bush Administration, but now it seems that such measures have the backing of the American public.
I also can't help but be appalled at the fact that men are more opposed to abortion than women. I understand that those men who are anti-abortion (yes, the failure to use the politically correct term, "pro-life" is intentional) believe that they are merely opposing murder, and that they have a right to defend innocent life.
They believe this despite the fact that the fetus at its inception has no brain function, no ability to feel pain, and no self-awareness; under this kind of reasoning, we should oppose the killing of plants and insects as well. In light of the scientifically faulty and suspect idea that life begins at conception, I cannot help but perceive these sentiments instead as a sexist desire to control the means of reproduction. It seems to me that they feel entitled to such control, perhaps because it is one of the easiest way to subjugate women.
In the alternative, it could be a base male instinct to want to propagate as many of their genes as possible. These men may oppose abortion because they don't like the idea that their potential children could be aborted, thus foiling their plans to pass on their DNA. Either way, it doesn't look good.
54 percent is over half of the male population. Over half the men in the United States believe that if they have sex with a woman and she becomes pregnant, she should carry the pregnancy to term. However, it is interesting to note that 81 percent of men have had premarital sex by the age of 44 (see study here). Even if we ascribed all the men who do not have premarital sex (a mere 19 percent) to the men who opposed abortion, there is still a whopping 35 percent of men who necessarily have premarital sex and oppose abortion. Even without these numbers, we can also see from everyday experience and common sense that there are plenty of single mothers and plenty of men who father illegitimate children and never marry the mothers.
So there is at least a substantial chunk of hypocrites out there who believe that they can go around having sex at the risk of creating children, but need not bear the responsibility of the consequences and contribute to raising the children they create. Although there are various child support laws, the fact of the matter is, women usually end up with the children, and men can find all kinds of ways to skip the state or deny paternity. Men who are opposed to abortion, but have premarital sex essentially assume that pregnancy is a woman's problem, and child rearing is predominantly a woman's responsibility. While they feel fine about engaging in activity that could possibly result in a child, they believe that they have a choice in whether to raise a child, while a woman does not.
If these men truly believed abortion is murder, they should not be having sex at all, because that would be the only way to ensure that a woman does not abort a fetus. A woman need not get the consent of a boyfriend or one-night-stand to get an abortion. So the fact that these men continue to have premarital sex at the risk of creating a child they do not want, but emptily cling to some claim of a moral high ground about what the woman should do, means that their claim of protecting the innocent is facetious at best.
Comments
But your whole argument of the hypocrisy of men collapses in light of the fact that the percentages of men and of women opposing abortion are about even. At the moment men are slightly higher; more often (as your article points out) women are. They have about the same respect for human life.
No, I think it is different because men who oppose abortion and have premarital sex engage in such behavior while expecting the other party to rear the child, while a woman similarly situated is merely making the decision for herself.
That's the hypocrisy - men don't bear the full burden of pregnancy and childcare, so when they oppose abortion, they are making an empty moral claim and do not necessarily back up the actions; they leave the burden of the actions to other party.
Pro-Choice forever.
Well that certainly defies the concept that underlies "feminist majority foundation" -- in that the majority of people supposedly support choice and equality, etc. And that is a pretty scary statistic! Ironically, there is a significantly higher rate of abortion now due to the economy (I wrote an article about it). Perhaps these poll results may be a form of backlash to the dominant trend. Also, in the time of a more liberal president, there is bound to be some kind of conservative uprising, just as there are liberal uprisings when a conservative president is in office. Nevertheless, I would be curious to know which groups are voting in the polls.
Pro-Life zealots are religiously driven. They use an argument that tries to attach a personality and "soul" to an organism that has no concept of life OR death, and which you intelligently pointed out - has no self-awareness.
Beside the obvious logical and scientific reasons....it's the woman's body! Who the hell is anyone to tell her what to do?
Yeah, I don't think the facts really back up the claim that life begins at conception. But what is interesting, is that I am not aware of an explicit bible verse that says so either. What exactly is it in the Bible that says something about abortion?
This is one of the most painfully sexist articles I've encountered recently.
"I cannot help but perceive these sentiments instead as a sexist desire to control the means of reproduction. It seems to me that they feel entitled to such control, perhaps because it is one of the easiest way to subjugate women. "
What? 5% more men are pro life than women, and that means to you that they have a secret desire to subjugate women? These conclusions you draw are far stretched, and only seem to slide because of your confidence as a writer, which in this article of opinion and quick, fiery conclusions, seems more like arrogance and close mindedness.
HOWEVER, I do like your point about the irresponsibility of expecting to have sex without consequences regardless of their stance on abortion. But again, I don't see why that's specific to men. Women are just as responsible for such things as men.
But if you don't believe they are, then maybe you'd support our subjugation after all. I
Either way, men don't win... They're is quite a sexist them here. I'm a woman. If a man has sex before marriage, um usually a woman is doing the same. They both made that choice and of cores the women need to weigh the option that Yeah I could get pregnant, yeah I might never see this guy again, and yeah then he won't pay child care. And in the end women make that decision to take this risk. So it's they're responsibility. It would be nice if men did take responsibility but that is always the case. If women respected they're bodies, then they would never have put themselves in the situation of getting pregnant(premaritally). If women didn't go out having premarital sex, neither would men. And you wouldn't be here, neither would any human be here if they not start in they're mother's fetus. By aborting you are not taking responsibility for the child or the action; therefore you are doing what it is that women despise in men. But men LEAVE the child, they don't KILL it. Adoption people!
Ummm you may want to check your facts on if the child, because the woman IS pregnant with a human child, feels pain. And yes the child does have brain function. Also i know the unborn child has no idea what life and death really are, but does a one year old, or even a two year old,know what life and death REALLY are either? I can only conclude that the wriiter of this article has no idea what the hell she is talking about, did no actual research, and only wants to be allowed to kill an innocent child with ease.
Pro-Choice will never die! SO SUCK IT all you women hating Anti-choicers!
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