Abortion rights in America have always been a talking point for elected officials, especially when running for office. The hot topic of deciding if a woman has the right to decide what to do with her own body has been debated and ruled on for over seventy years. After the decision of the Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade, women thought that their rights were protected.
Roe v. Wade was a landmark 1973 decision that ruled abortion as a constitutional right. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that a woman’s choice to have an abortion outweighs the state’s concern for prenatal life up until the “point of fetal viability,” or the point when a fetus can survive outside the womb (in 1973, this was determined to be 24-28 weeks).
The recent overturning of the law, making it a decision that each state can decide, has raised the question of whether a woman has the right to decide what happens to her own body again. But what if it were men who had babies? What would the debate look like and how would the Supreme Court handle the case?
In America’s over 400 years of existence, men, better yet, white men have enjoyed the proverbial “land of the free” treatment more than any other class of people. To date, white men have never had any real restrictions to do anything they want.
Men can choose what to do with their bodies, they can choose how they want to work, they can choose how they’re going to make money, and they can choose how and when they want to marry.
“If men could get pregnant, walk-in abortion clinics would be in every Walmart, and they’d run $19.95 specials every Wednesday,” Mary from Indiana said.
“If men could get pregnant, you’d be able to buy abortion pills from a machine in a gas station. The brand name might be ‘Whoops!’ or ‘Not now,’” Glyn from Tennessee said.
The comments are not far off from the truth. The bottom line is, if men were the ones that got pregnant, the laws that govern what they could do with their bodies would look much different.
WHY DO WOMEN VOTE AGAINST THEIR OWN INTERESTS?
The political question of why a woman would vote against her interest is a good question. The women’s movement was supposed to bring awareness and changes to the political landscape to increase women’s rights.
The two most populous nations in the world are India and China, which, by extension, are home to the most men in the world. In both societies, abortion is legal and is largely accessible to women with no moral ruckus over pro-life and pro-choice.
If the assumption were true that men are the reason why societies are against abortion, then India and China, with their enormous block of the world’s men, should be societies that view abortions rather unfavorably.
China has had that since the late 1950s, and early 1960s, and India made abortions a qualified right in 1971. In fact, most Indian people don’t even relate to the abortion debate at all.
For America, the debate on abortion comes from a religious perspective, and that’s where the controversy starts. Western civilization is based on Christianity. While religion is less popular and has less of a grip on society in most of Europe and around the world, the underpinnings of the culture have not fundamentally changed.
So, while the left and right debate the law, it’s the religious who are mostly driving the argument in America. The debate has gotten so contested in the red states, that under no circumstances will these states want the mother to abort a baby.
“Everyone should work to make abortion as rare as possible, but safe and available when needed. There is no reason for legal interference with a necessary procedure. And there is no reason for a woman to opt for an abortion unless she is in a desperate situation,” Cindy from Ohio said.
Cindy, who is a Republican, believes that the government should stay out of the affairs of women but thinks the law should also protect the unborn child as well. This makes for a complicated situation when it comes to determining who is more important, the mother or the unborn child. Thus, many Republicans lean towards protecting the unborn child.
The religion discounts the need to protect the mother when her life is at risk. There are times when the birth of the baby could seriously injure or kill the mother. Some of the new abortion laws do not include these scenarios.
Pregnancy imposes significant physiological changes on a woman’s body. These changes can exacerbate underlying or preexisting conditions, like renal or cardiac disease, and can severely compromise health or even cause death. Determining the appropriate medical intervention depends on a patient’s specific condition. There are situations where pregnancy termination in the form of an abortion is the only medical intervention that can preserve a patient’s health or save her life.
Women are being forced to go to blue states to terminate their pregnancies to save their own lives.
A CONTRACEPTIVE PILL FOR MEN
The debate has also introduced the role of the man in the matter. Men help create pregnant women, why do men get to sit on the sidelines and not have to be involved if the mother has the baby or not? Men are half the problem, but women have all the blame.
Since the 1970s, doctors have been trying to find a way to create a pill that blocks sperm production in men. Dimethandrolone undecanoate is a new testosterone-like medicine. It can be taken as a pill. It is effective at stopping sperm production. Side effects are weight gain, raised hemoglobin, and blood lipid disturbances. Those side effects were too high to even consider bringing the drug to market and the trials have been stopped.
“I think it’s true that, in my experience of talking to men about this, men are worried about future fertility and about unknown side effects that may only become known years after using a product,” said John Walker, a male fertility doctor. “They’re worried about the effect on their performance, and how they feel about sex.”
There are two kinds of birth control, reversible and permanent. Permanent birth control for men is called a vasectomy. Vasectomy and tubal sterilization are safe, and effective, and provide permanent protection from pregnancy. However, these procedures come with risks and sometimes cannot be reversed.
Can pulling out work? What is known about pulling out is that withdrawal works about 78 percent of the time. But the odds of pregnancy are always higher during the five days leading up to, and during, ovulation — these are called fertile days. If no semen gets on the vulva or in the vagina, pregnancy can’t happen — whether or not she is ovulating.
Condoms are and have always been, the best option when it comes to reducing unwanted pregnancies for men. The sensation is lower and the pain of putting them to use is annoying, but they protect both parties from having to make difficult decisions after having sex.
In conclusion, if men got pregnant, the laws surrounding the debate of abortion would not be debated in the US. Women, whether they lean left or right, are religious or not, bare the responsibility to protect themselves and each other.
