home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Xref: sparky soc.men:23417 alt.abortion.inequity:6752
- Path: sparky!uunet!crdgw1!rpi!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!nigel.msen.com!heifetz!rotag!kevin
- From: kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy)
- Newsgroups: soc.men,alt.abortion.inequity
- Subject: Re: Back to responsibility
- Message-ID: <1993Jan27.233020.10389@rotag.mi.org>
- Date: 27 Jan 93 23:30:20 GMT
- References: <1jal2gINNe28@gap.caltech.edu> <C14372.CsI@cs.psu.edu> <1jhnskINN964@gap.caltech.edu>
- Organization: Who, me???
- Lines: 63
-
- In article <1jhnskINN964@gap.caltech.edu> peri@cco.caltech.edu (Michal Leah Peri) writes:
- >beaver@castor.cs.psu.edu (Don Beaver) writes:
- >
- >>peri@cco.caltech.edu (Michal Leah Peri) writes:
- >>>It is not my business to tell a man whether or not to engage in intercourse.
- >>>He needs to assess both the payoff and the risk and make that decision for
- >>>himself. But he does need to realize that there *is* risk involved.
- >
- >>This could easily be applied to women in the 1950's. Thus, there's
- >>no problem with outlawing abortion.
- >
- >I do not advocate abortion as birth control.
-
- Please define "birth control" in this context.
-
- >The statement "a woman needs to assess both the payoff and the risk and
- >make that decision" would seem to make it OK to outlaw abortion *IF*
- >that birth control was the only motivation behind legalized abortion.
- >(Rape would still be a problem, however.)
- >But it is *not* the only motivation.
- >There is still the question of bodily autonomy. A woman has a right
- >to decide to what uses her body will be put.
-
- And a man has a right to decide to what uses his body will be put.
- Paternity child support forces his body to be put to uses he does not
- consent to, i.e. working to support an unwanted child, or being thrown into
- jail.
-
- >Consent to sex is not consent to allow one's body to be used by the
- >foetus, nor is it consent to allow the father to force or rent one's
- >body for the gestation of his child.
-
- Are you changing the subject now? We've been talking about the case where
- the mother WANTS the child, and the father DOESN'T, now you seem to be
- reversing the roles...
-
- >Consent to sex is not consent to allow the father or the state to
- >force one to undergo surgery (abortion *is* surgery).
-
- I'm not advocating forced abortion. I'm advocating, however, that if a woman
- makes a choice not to abort, that she should be fully liable for that choice,
- without any artificial "subsidies". This is an economic argument, not a
- reproductive rights argument. And, quite frankly, I'm getting sick and tired
- of people (purposely?) mixing up the two.
-
- >>Thus, if a responsible man tells the responsible woman that
- >>he does not want to become a parent and does not have the resources
- >>to support a child, then the responsible woman should consider
- >>her ability to raise/support a child +alone+, in her decision about
- >>what occurs within her body.
- >
- >Why *alone*? Doesn't a child have the right to be supported by both
- >of its parents?
-
- A right to be supported? Yes. A right to get that support from a particular
- source or sources? Why? What's the justification? Does it really matter to
- the child whether his or next meal is paid for by Mommy's greenbacks, Daddy's
- greenbacks, taxpayer's greenbacks, or a combination of the above? Seems to
- me that the legislature only has a vital interest in whether the child is
- adequately supported. The question of WHERE that support comes from should
- be settled using common law notions of legal obligation, as I have proposed.
-
- - Kevin
-