Her Choice, Her Problem

[Sojourner]

[url="http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/07/her-choice-her-problem#commentContent"]Fascinating article from First Things. [/url] My subscription ran out; seems I need to renew it.
Excerpts:
[quote]This summer, President Obama proclaimed again that we “need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn’t end at conception.” In a sense, of course, he is absolutely right. But the problem is that, in another sense, he is completely wrong: Male responsibility really does end at conception. Men these days can choose only sex, not fatherhood; mothers alone determine whether children shall be allowed to exist. Legalized abortion was supposed to grant enormous freedom to women, but it has had the perverse result of freeing men and trapping women.[/quote]
[quote]Moreover, the availability of abortion may make all societies less open to empowering women in other ways. MacKinnon may well be right that stronger women would more often resist male pressures to risk pregnancies and have abortions. But, perhaps paradoxically, the option of abortion actually makes sympathy and solidarity—and thus women’s empowerment—less likely.

When birth was the result of passion and bad luck, some people could sympathize with a young woman who was going to need help with her baby, though the stigma of bastardry was genuine. If money or a larger place to live were going to be necessary for her to stay in school, a sense of solidarity would likely lead friends and family to offer assistance. The father would feel strong pressure as well, for he was as responsible as she for the child. He might offer to get a second job or otherwise shoulder some of the burdens of parenting.

But once continuing a pregnancy to birth is the result neither of passion nor of luck but only of her deliberate choice, sympathy weakens. After all, the pregnant woman can avoid all her problems by choosing abortion. So if she decides to take those difficulties on, she must think she can handle them.[/quote]
[quote]Throughout human history, children have been the consequence of natural sexual relations between men and women. Both sexes knew they were equally responsible for their children, and society had somehow to facilitate their upbringing. Even the advent of birth control did not fundamentally change this dynamic, for all forms of contraception are fallible.

Elective abortion changes everything. Abortion absolutely prevents the birth of a child. A woman’s choice for or against abortion breaks the causal link between conception and birth. It matters little what or who caused conception or whether the male insisted on having unprotected intercourse. It is she alone who finally decides whether the child comes into the world. She is the responsible one. For the first time in history, the father and the doctor and the health-insurance actuary can point a finger at her as the person who allowed an inconvenient human being to come into the world.

The deepest tragedy may be that there is no way out. By granting to the pregnant woman an unrestrained choice over who will be born, we make her alone to blame for how she exercises her power. Nothing can alter the solidarity-shattering impact of the abortion option.[/quote]

[Archaeology cat]

Wow, good article.

[homeschoolmom]

Excellent article.

[Brother Adam]

First Things is the best journal in existence today. Every Catholic should have a subscription.

[Sojourner]

One of the comments was interesting too:
[quote]Stith is right but he does not go far enough. Lionel Tiger a darwinist anthropologist has made a serious argument in The Decline of Males that this problem starts with contraceptive pills which for the first time left contraception entirely in the hands of women. Having no stake in the decision to get pregnant is it any wonder that males desert women who do out of wedlock[/quote](sic)

And this from a Darwinist. It never ceases to amaze me how Catholic teachings and predictions are shown to be true over and over from a variety of sources. Those who seek Truth will find it.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Brother Adam' date='09 September 2009 - 09:49 AM' timestamp='1252504154' post='1963784']
First Things is the best journal in existence today. Every Catholic should have a subscription.
[/quote]
I agree. The editorial staff have consistently done a fantastic job of engaging in scholarly discourse on topics relevant to Catholics, as well as to people from other faiths.

[Lilllabettt]

Abortion is a concept created by men, or rather, male power structures.

The first acts of abortion/infanticide took place in the hunting/gathering milieu which characterized the first human communities. These were nomadic soceties: the male-dominated community would periodically move, following the game movements which were in response to changes in weather and season. If a woman happened to be very pregnant, and unable to keep up, she could "choose" to swallow a mixture of poisonous plants and roots, inducing an abortion. Or she could "choose" to stay where she was, be seperated from her family and any other children she might have, and give birth alone in inclement weather.

Down to this day, this is the "choice" pro-choicers are advocating.

How many women who "choose" abortion do so, saying: "I have no choice": I don't have a way to support this child. I'll be shunned/disowned if I give birth out of wedlock. I won't be able to have a career if I have a child (notice how men have never had to worry about that one.)

"Pro-choice" men are the real chauvinist pigs.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Terra Firma' date='09 September 2009 - 09:54 AM' timestamp='1252504445' post='1963786']
I agree. The editorial staff have consistently done a fantastic job of engaging in scholarly discourse on topics relevant to Catholics, as well as to people from other faiths.
[/quote]

[CatherineM]

We have a show here called Murdoch Mysteries that is kind of like Bones with a male cop and a female pathologist, but it is set in Victorian era Toronto. They had an abortion episode last night. It had a guy running an insurance company that hired young women to do clerical, and after he had his way with them, and they got pregnant, he just sent them to an abortionist and then fired them. They called him a Bounder. This was obviously in a time well before sexual harassment law suits. Women are not supposed to feel like property anymore, yet every time we allow a man to treat us like throw away property, that's what we become.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Lilllabettt' date='09 September 2009 - 09:54 AM' timestamp='1252504457' post='1963787']
Abortion is a concept created by men, or rather, male power structures.

The first acts of abortion/infanticide took place in the hunting/gathering milieu which characterized the first human communities. These were nomadic soceties: the male-dominated community would periodically move, following the game movements which were in response to changes in weather and season. If a woman happened to be very pregnant, and unable to keep up, she could "choose" to swallow a mixture of poisonous plants and roots, inducing an abortion. Or she could "choose" to stay where she was, be seperated from her family and any other children she might have, and give birth alone in inclement weather.

Down to this day, this is the "choice" pro-choicers are advocating.

How many women who "choose" abortion do so, saying: "I have no choice": I don't have a way to support this child. I'll be shunned/disowned if I give birth out of wedlock. I won't be able to have a career if I have a child (notice how men have never had to worry about that one.)

"Pro-choice" men are the real chauvinist pigs.
[/quote]
While I agree that men play a major role in the millions of decisions to abort, I think it's important not to let women off the hook for their responsibility in making the choices they make. I think Catherine is right on when she says that "women are not supposed to feel like property anymore, yet every time we allow a man to treat us like throw away property, that's what we become." We are not helpless victims to men's advances.

[homeschoolmom]

Yeah, let's not forget the masses of women marching in favor of legalized abortion.

[StColette]

[quote name='Terra Firma' date='09 September 2009 - 11:24 AM' timestamp='1252509870' post='1963805']
While I agree that men play a major role in the millions of decisions to abort, I think it's important not to let women off the hook for their responsibility in making the choices they make. I think Catherine is right on when she says that "women are not supposed to feel like property anymore, yet every time we allow a man to treat us like throw away property, that's what we become." We are not helpless victims to men's advances.
[/quote]


[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='09 September 2009 - 11:26 AM' timestamp='1252509999' post='1963806']
Yeah, let's not forget the masses of women marching in favor of legalized abortion.
[/quote]

Even if men play a major role in the decisions that are made regarding abortions, it doesn't mean a woman must follow through with it. We are held accountable for our own actions. If my husband were to tell me to do something that I knew was wrong, I have every right to refuse doing what he asked. It does take strength to be able to ignore such persuasion, but it's not impossible.

[tinytherese]

It's sad how so many women start out with good intentions- to want to be free human beings instead of second class citizens dominated by men, but end up demeaning themselves in the process- which was what they were fighting against in the first place. Believe me, I attended a secular women's college for two years. I know that my peers had some good intentions and had been hurt by men before, but they just didn't understand how to go about it the way that they should have. It inspires me to want to learn about what God's image for womanhood really is. I've read a good portion of a book called Captivating that talks about some of that and I've read part of The Authentic Catholic Woman. If only women adopted the feminine genius that God designed!

[eagle_eye222001]

Interesting how we [society] think ourselves to be so advanced with new solutions and ideas.......and many decry on the Church for being "old-fashioned" and "from the dark ages"........yet through all this "how great are we," society still carries such wrong views.

[jeffpugh]

Wow. Great article.