To the Editor:
I am perplexed by one question regarding abortion: As a man, who am I to decide whether any woman should bear a child?
I’m not talking about child-bearing decisions that committed partners reach together.
I am thinking about women who didn’t want to get pregnant; whose plans and goals did not include rearing a baby to adulthood; who were the victims of rape or incest; who could not afford a(nother) child; whose fetuses were developing abnormally; whose pregnancies could kill them.
Who am I to command these women to continue their pregnancies? Who am I to even demand that they provide me an excuse?
The classic counterargument is that abortion is murder.
Perhaps. But I am not a theologian, a philosopher or a biologist. And I am certainly not God. I can’t dictate when life begins; when a fetus becomes a human; whether or when it has a soul. Nor am I in a position to ordain the fate of the mother.
Could I go through with an abortion? Probably not, but as a man I will never face that choice. And how many men would tolerate government intrusion into so personal a decision?
I believe abortion is a decision that belongs between a woman, her God and her physician – not to me or the government. When you vote in November, choose Kamala Harris for president, John Mannion for Congress and other candidates who are pledged to leave control of women’s bodies to women, where it belongs.
John Mariani
Waterville, NY
