Posted: Jul 17, 2017 2:52 pm
Nicko wrote:Papa Smurf wrote:I'm saying that a man should have she same choice as the woman insofar as it does not intrude upon her bodily autonomy, ie. he can, depending on circumstances, absolve himself from legal/financial consequences, just like the woman can. There is never going to be an exact symmetry (since both giving birth and having an abortion carry a medical risk with them for the woman) but this would be the closest you can get.
For me, it's not actually about "symmetry". Rather, it is the result of the situation necessarily being asymmetrical.
A woman has, and should have, 100% of the decision-making power in deciding whether a pregnancy results in becoming a parent. That's just a consequence of "her body, her choice".
I'll repeat that: her choice. No one else's.
Not the father's choice.
Not the state's choice.
Not the church's choice.
Her. Choice.
Given that the decision as to whether or not a pregnancy results in parenthood is - and should be - a unilateral one on the part of the pregnant woman, it is fundamentally unjust for that decision to automatically result in a shared responsibility.
As far as I can tell we are fully in agreement and I agree with your reasoning as well. I simply arrive at the same conclusion through a slightly different line of reasoning, although I think my post included some aspects of what you write above (if a man cannot force a woman to have a child, a woman should not be able to force the burden of a child she alone wants upon a man).