Journal article
Men vs. Abortion: What Are Their Rights?
Transitions (Manhasset, N.Y.), Vol.8(5)
31 Oct 1988
Abstract
Regardless of our position on when life begins, whether at birth or at conception, we can broach the subject of abortion before risking pregnancy -- knowing as we do the failure rate of even the best contraceptives results in more than 1,000,000 "catastrophic" pregnancies in this country along every year. If our intended lover has strong views at sharp variance with our own, we should not trust to fate to "work things out" in a worst-case scenerio; Rather, if we are serious about being males "in transition" to a fine, more adult manhood, we should delay, or even forego love-making...until we and our lover concur about our probable reaction to an unwanted pregnancy. Along with a effort at bringing this topic "out of the closet," and ending another conversational taboo, we can get more responsibly and directly involved in the matter of conception per se. While in the '60's, it might have sufficed to leave it to her, in the late '80's that it is just plain stupid. Current information about the relative efficacy of the pill vs. the condom vs. the diaphragm vs. "natural" or rythym methods ought to belong to any male who thinks himself ready for lovemaking, and if a couple cannot agree on what they are actually doing to prevent a pregnancy they ought never to risk one. Again, in the '60's it might have sufficied to swallow hard, zip one's lips tight, and attend solicitously to her every emotional swing as she alone tried to process out this extraordinary development. Nowadays, however, such behavior of the part of a "strong, silent-suffering" male is just plain stupid. Actually it seldom was convincing even in the '60's, as much feminist literature makes plain, and it breaks sharply with the new woman's expectation of caring candor where her lover is concerned.
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Details
- Title
- Men vs. Abortion: What Are Their Rights?
- Creators
- Arthur Shostak
- Publication Details
- Transitions (Manhasset, N.Y.), Vol.8(5)
- Publisher
- National Coalition for Men
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Culture and Communication [Historical]
- Identifiers
- 991020705361204721