RObert, I rarely have a problem with your comments re abortion or women's rights, but Benk has always managed to bring me out fighting with his anti-female comments.

However, equal rights are never going to be achieved in the case of pregnancy are they, because men will never share the physical aspect of carrying a pregnancy?

That is not to say women are superior to men , or anything like that. It just says we are different in that way, and thus have to stand up for ourselves.

As far as the subject of murder goes, a woman's decision to have an abortion is legal.
Someone else forcefully and deliberately causing a miscarriage in a woman by causing them bodily harm is not. That's not rocket science I would have thought.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother at all though, given that the fight to 'allow' choice for women as far as abortion goes, is already won in Australia. However, we need to be constantly vigilant that this 'right' is not taken away from us...

"Men can't be trusted to use condoms properly as it is.
Hence, the reason why we have no male contraception pill..."

Suzie have a think about what you`ve written.

I don`t see how abortion can be supported on one hand and then treat the instance that this thread is about as murder. A serious assault on the woman but not murder. Those sort of double standards do present a threat to choice.

Likewise I don`t see how one the one hand a womans right to choice following consentual sex can be legitately supported whilst at the same time suggesting thats the mans rights to choice stop at the sex act.

If you think that men get off lightly you should perhaps listen a little more closely to concerns from men re the gendered nature of the way family law and child support plays out. An absolutely brutal system that quite happily ignores in practical application any concept of fair treatment or shared responsibility.

R0bert

Susie,
How about we invent a male contaceptive pill that incorporates some Viagra?

If it is reasonably priced and freely available males would use that.

Males have always been jealous of females ability to have prolonged sexual activity. According to some mag articles, women are not happy about their partner just rolling off and snoring either.

We could be on a winner!

Woman aborts fetus; exercising her human rights.
Man aborts fetus; murderer.

I think we need equality in 'reproductive rights' for men.

Solution 1: Women must abort their fetus on the request of the biological father.
Solution 2: Women may not abort their fetus unless given permission by the biological father.

Or we could compromise and the man must be able to 'financially' abort their child, and have no further responsibility financial or otherwise to match the lack of rights they hold.

Feminism is all about equality after all, so most feminists would naturally agree

Not surprisingly, opinion polls show public confusion on
the issue of abortion. The great majority of the
population supports abortion in cases of rape, incest,
or a threat to the mother's health, and support for
a mother's right to abortion on demand fluctuates between
just over and just under half of the population.

I'm sure that many of us at times wonder whether our position on
abortion is right - regardless of whether we oppose or
approve of it. In any event, abortion must be seen in the
context of social changes, in our society's premarital, marital,
and family life - particularly the climate of sexual
permissiveness and the sense of individualism that leads people
to make decisions primarily in terms of their personal desires
rather than of traditional norms.

As far as the case under discussion here - I guess it depends
on the laws of that state and how a fetus is viewed. If the
law allows - that the fetus is human, then I guess that explains
the court's decision of murder - in which the partner took
somebody else's potential body and life - one that might have
become as alive and unique as we are.

I conflicting value judgements about abortion stem from this
fundamental ambiguity in the status of the fetus. In the US
the laws vary from state to state.

What if the number of deaths from firearms ever approached the number of full term babies left in trays to die through exposure and dehydration? That is without considering the number of viable foetuses despatched after 26 weeks.

Political censorship is strong in Australia where political correctness is concerned. The lack of political will to collect and analyse abortion statistics is in stark contrast to the obsessive gathering and reporting of numbers for other health indicators and possible drivers of cost in the health systems at State and federal level. Inconvenient numbers do not exist because they are considered 'problematic' and are simply not collected in the first place.

What is known though from the few States that collect some numbers, is that it isn't the young and presumed silly who seek abortions. The incidence of young unplanned pregnancies plummeted with the ready availability of contraception and has stayed at that low. The elephant in the room is that it is women mid-twenties to mid-thirties who account for the lion's share of abortions. Why that is so can only be speculated on so long as statistics are not gathered and analysed.

Problems with the foetus, rape and psychiatric problems of the mother - usual arguments to support abortion - are responsible for very few abortions, with the lion's share, said to be over 96%, attributed to the vague 'mental health of the mother'. If the pregnancies were inconvenient, why record them as such? Why the politically correct fudging?

I am not arguing against abortion, but I cannot agree with political censorship that prevents the public from making informed judgements about health and social policy.

On the other hand, if it is OK for the woman to decide against carrying the lump of cells because of convenience, lifestyle, or 'just don't feel like it' (valid reasons enough from the stats) why shouldn't the male be able to advise the same considerations? Then if the woman wishes to continue it is hers and hers alone, which should suit many women too from all accounts