Should a Male have a say on whether his partner gets an Abortion?

If he wants it and she doesn't, he can carry it.

Uh, yah

In the end, it doesn't matter, the man doesn't get a say in anything regarding a child. If he wants it and she doesn't, the baby gets aborted. If he doesn't want it and she does, he's stuck paying child support.

Yup. It's one of those unfair things in life. A man doesn't get a choice to simply bow out. Hmm. This is certainly a loaded issue.

Depends on the circumstances. If, for instance, the woman literally cannot carry the child without harming it or herself, then no.

In the long run it's not their decision to make, but considering the amount it affects the male he should have at least some say in it.

It's complicated.

Would you really want the mother of your children to be someone whos down to abort your child?

@cgoodness: Would any woman want the father of their children to be someone that would force them to carry a child?

@erik: what I ment by that is that you should let her get the abortion because she's probably a unfit mother

We have no way to know for sure.

@erik: I think it would be fair to assume that a women who's down to abort probably isn't mother of the year

Since she is not yet a mother, she would be ineligible for the award anyway.

I really would like to hear people's opinions on why it's not the norm or what prevents this from being considered?

@erik: touché....but the point still stands

I don't see how, she may be making a mature decision to pursue a higher education. Or she may be a crack head. We can't make generalizations really, approximately 50 per cent of the population can get pregnant, and 100 per cent have the capacity to make mistakes.

I strongly disagree. Removing a collection of cells, a biological parasite, has nothing to do with motherhood in any shape or form.

If the women raped the man then he should have 100% of the say.

I think we can say whatever we want but lets be real, its her body and ultimately the decision is up to her. If a male could carry it I think things would be different.

@erik: well it's my personal belief that children are a blessing (no I'm not some hardcore Christian, I'm agnostic), and a women should put a child before anything else even if it's just a collection of cells

There is something seriously wrong with some of the users here that would say that a woman should be stripped of her individual rights, simply because she had become pregnant. Clearly an unwanted pregnancy at that. It's nice to see the supposedly intelligent seriously making the claim that women are nothing but wombs for their genetic material. While we are at it, can we legalize rape in marriage? That should be a thing too, since women clearly are subhuman in the eyes of what appears to be the majority here.

@cgoodness said:

I don't think thats a fair or valid assumption to make, but most peoples perception of who gets abortions and why tends to be skewered anyway because of the political and religious interference on the subject, so it can be hard for individuals to have a good and objective grasp on such things. Basically both concepts are too broad (those who choose to have abortions and how individuals treat others let alone those that they are guardians/protectors/carers of) to make any sort of conclusions about, not without you know, being all hardcore about it and actually factoring in tons of other factors and studying/researching it.

If they are married then yes he should have a say. If they aren't then of course he can give his opinion but she doesn't have to listen to it. But in a marriage he definitely has a say.

@greatcaesarsghost: yes it wouldn't be fair to assume all women who get abortions are bad people, yes it would be unfair to have their education be ruined by a child, but a child should always come first in my opinion

It's not a child during a pregnancy.

Fair enough, but sometimes they can't, and getting an abortion may be the mature decision to make. Once the child is born though, I agree with you entirely.

Wow, is this controversial topic month or what?

@sc: while yes the women I had at mind for that comment arnt the kinda girls you take home to show the folks, i don't think all women who get them are bad, just selfish, and that's not due to poltical or religious reasons it's for personal reasons based on events of my life

I find the poll options too simply really to be honest. If there was a "depends" option I would choose that, because having an opinion or input or a "say" is different from say demeaning or forcing or so on. Also depends on the status or relationship of the two biological parents, also having a say doesn't inherently lead to having an equal say, also it can be more complicated than just yes or no to abortion, could be a lot of variables for both the mother and father to consider, financial situation, friends and family support, career opportunities. Basically its a subject where you probably don't want to simplify things to poll options, as far as it not actually being applicable to real life situations.

Personally I do think fathers should have a say, but not necessarily as much as the biological mother but its in the interest of both to actually communicate and find common ground. That and lets say hypothetically the father is a doctor and is a really reasonable guy, knows a lot about pregnancy, and his partner trusts him a lot and he thinks she should have an abortion for reasons that factor in the mothers health and child's health and the mother trusts his judgement? Well then he had quite a lot of input into that decision but its different than a guy who doesn't care about the mother and only wants her to not have an abortion for flimsy ethical reasons but he also doesn't plan on contributing to the child's life at all. Very different situations with different attitudes and different levels of affirmation/agreement between the biological mother and father, different support system. Just a lot of differences, hence variables.

So my short answer is it depends.

No sh*t, Sherlock, she likely isn't a mother at all.

@erik: it's a stage in a persons life though

@squares: lol

No, because a fetus isn't a person anymore than an egg is a chicken.

@erik: a egg is a stage also

@cgoodness: By your logic so is a sperm cell.

But an egg is not a chicken. Nor is an unopened bucket of paint a work of art.

@squares: a stage is a point, period, or step in a process or development.

I know the definition for stage, thank you. But by your logic sperm cells are people too, making something like masturbation (or even sex that doesn't result in pregnancy) selfish.

@cgoodness: So.... since I am in school, does this mean I am also currently a doctor?

@squares: masturbating isn't a stage of life, a collection of cells growing in the womb is, im not saying abortion is wrong and should be illegal, im saying i probably dont want the mother of my children to be someone who would have one

@cgoodness said:

From statistics and studies (USA) majority of woman (at least studies from around 2008, 2011) getting abortions are already mothers and adults.

What's selfish is selfish, so unless we know what a person chooses to have a procedure thats usually extremely invasive, harrowing, comes with a lot of societal, religious and peer pressure and judgement and their personal circumstance, what right/entitlement do any of us have to generalize a whole lot of them as selfish? The person getting an abortion could be thinking of the future of their child and whether they can provide for it or not, living people have a natural and normal bias towards living of course so many are just inherently predisposed to thinking life is automatically the best thing (which it is for those alive generally speaking) but at the same time its always more complicated than that. Person getting abortion could be thinking of the child they already have and whether its fair on them as well. Not every parent can support one child let alone two, so often and at least by the statistics thats probably a large factor for those getting an abortion.

Having personal reasons is fine and I can respect that, and think anyone could, but many people including myself don't make decisions or hold views based on personal reasons or experiences, because of how personal experiences by definition work and how well they are applied to everyone else. Or to put another way, personal reasons for specific persons, and non personal reasons (objective knowledge based) for everyone else.

Masturbating isn't a stage of life but by your definition of what a life is, a sperm cell is a stage of the life of a person.

@erik: going to school is a stage in your life yes and working to be a doctor is also, its not like a fetus has the choice of being a human or velociraptor

@sc: that's reasonal

Cool. Well as an apparent doctor, I think you should allow me to perform surgery on you.

No sh*t masturbating isn't a stage of life, it's a goddamn action.

And I know you're not saying it's wrong or illegal, I believe your specific words were 'selfish'. And I'm saying that if something as tiny and inconsequential as a goddamn blastocyst is a person, then shouldn't the sex cells that combined to make it (what you seem to define as) a person also count as people, or at least half of a person?