It may surprise people to learn that, despite my huge broodiness, I support legal abortions. There are many reasons for this - sometimes, medically, it is the better option. Sometimes, things happen at the wrong time. I cannot condone the use of abortion rather than contraception, but it is better to have it as a legal option rather than force already vulnerable people to find their own way - I've heard of women drinking bottles of vodka and throwing themselves down the stairs rather than face a pregnancy as a result of rape. That isn't how it should be. I'm also pro-abortion because the world is already over-populated and there are already so many children in bad family situations and if I want babies then other people have to not have them.
So I think it is important for women to have the right to control their bodies. I dislike the pro-life/pro-choice labels. To me, the implication is that 'pro-choice' equates to 'anti-life' and I am definitely not that, but this is another rant.
What I wanted to discuss is the gender problem. If the mother is keen to have the baby but the father is reluctant, she should be allowed to keep the baby - no one should be able to force her to do otherwise. But what if the roles are reversed? What if the father is the one yearning to be a parent and the mother is unready/unwilling to carry a baby, can the father force the mother to go through with it anyway? Should he be able to? This is a much more difficult area - it is the mother's body, it is her life that is being affected for the next few months but what about the emotional needs of the father?
I don't have any answers, just a lot of wondering.
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