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Originally Posted by Hektore
While I completely agree with you Gilda, allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment and take a stab at the legality of this. For the average citizen there can be no protected gender inequalities under the law, which I think is a good thing to have.
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It isn't a gender inequity under the law it's a biological physical difference between being male and being female. There's no law that says a man can't have an abortion, it's just physically impossible given that he can't get pregnant.
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Granted the existence of abortion, you need only to switch the gender to see that in terms of *legal responsibility* women can have as much consequence free sex as they want.
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No. You cannot switch genders in this case because the woman gets pregnant and the man doesn't. Switching genders ignores reality.
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Not that having to undergo an abortion is not a consequence at all, but it is an out that legally absolves you of all responsibility for the child, thus once a pregnancy has begun, you can still choose to reject motherhood.
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And here is where this argument really breaks down completely. A man who aborts his parental responsibilites preemptively has in effect relieved himself of any consequences. This is
not possible for the woman because reproduction is fundamentally different for the sexes. Barring a spontaneous abortion or a miscarriage, a pregnant woman
will have consequences that result from her being pregnant. Abortion is a negative consequence, having to undergo a surgical procedure, albeit a relatively safe one, is a negative consequence. Having to raise a child with no support from the father or give it up for adoption is a negative consequence. Once the pregnancy begins, there is no path that relieves the woman of all consequences.
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There is no such choice out for men, once the pregnancy has begun fatherhood is forced on them at the mother's discretion. Thus an inequality based on gender.
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An inequality based on the reality of biology. See my first response.
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This would have to resolved by either getting rid of abortion or granting men an abortion-like right to choose to give up all legal rights and responsibilities that come with children.
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No, this would have to be resolved by recognizing the reality that women get pregnant and men don't.
Gilda