by Sanna Hakkareinen

News Editor

Looking down at the pregnancy test, you see a small plus. You’re pregnant. You are going to have a child, and it is currently beginning the long journey of growth and development within your uterus. Many thoughts cross your mind. Excitement? Relief? Anxiety? Anger? You begin to realize that this plus is about to change your entire life completely. At this point you begin to wonder, is this a good idea?

Abortion is currently legal, but is still extremely difficult to obtain in certain states. However, this option is still an important part of a woman’s decision, and has been since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade verdict on Jan. 22, 1973. However, many people still disagree with this law, including pro-life men. The fact that men want the power to choose whether or not a women should have a child frustrates me and many others because even though they may be the father of the child, they do not have to deal with the physical burden of pregnancy, and can distance themselves from the repercussions of conceiving a child. Additionally, women should have the right to choose whether or not they should keep the child instead of being forced to have a baby they might be unable to care for.

Men should not have a say in abortion because they are not responsible for the baby while it is still developing in the womb. Even if protection is used during sex, a woman still has a chance of getting pregnant. In the cases where pregnancy actually does occur, the woman may not be emotionally or physically prepared to have the child.

Unless a woman is trying to become pregnant, she is probably not excited to hear that she may have a child. In this situation, the woman should be able to choose whether or not she wants to keep the child because she will be carrying the child for the next nine months. The man should not be able to make the choice for her because he is not physically attached to the child when it is within the mother’s uterus. Because of this, the feeling of having a fetus growing inside you is unfathomable to the father. He does not have to undergo the burden of pregnancy, which therefore does not give him the right to decide for the person who actually does.

Some men believe that abortion should not be allowed since it is murder of an innocent life. Even though women are only half of the population, men should still allow women to choose because the men are not connected to the child when it is still unborn. This shows that men cannot sympathize about having to carry a child with women, so they cannot make decisions about it. Men do not realize that women deserve the right to choose whether they want the child growing within them because they are the person in the relationship that actually carries the children while it is still a fetus. The fact that men do not have the same perspective on childbirth is why they should not have a say in whether abortion should be allowed or not.