Why I feel the Abortion Consent Law is a Bad Idea.

    When I heard of the proposal from State Representative Bill Bratton of providing written consent from the father of the child before an abortion could occur. A story covered in Mother Jones. My first thought was that was too much of an overreach. Although, the premise seams sound, the law appears to only act as a trump card. And I see this law being summarily overturned in the courts, without much controversy. 

     Although, the proposed law may be well intentioned, I see many problems regarding the application of this law.

     One reason is because, this law functions as a trump card. Thus giving the perceived future father of the baby the ability to override the mother’s wishes by the force of law. Not just equal say, but required participation. The father is not required to do one thing to stop the abortion, just refuse to sign. This leaves to mother exposed to further manipulation. 

     I agree that the current abortion laws do favor the rights of the female over the rights of the male. And this power can be used vindictively. As in the case of a woman saying. I am going to abort your baby in spite of how you feel. However, can we justify placing an equal law that states. You will carry this baby full term, and create a true balance. As for establishing the rights of the unborn, this is the only battle ground that this issue could be won on. The father/mother issue is just an obfuscation.

If the problem was a plague of Succubus that are stealing the seed of virtuous men, in order to obtain the blood price to partake in the sacrament of the radical feminist. Then this law may be applicable.

The problem I have is that this law is that it can give an individual with Machiavellian intentions the ability to use the state to enforce limited slavery.

     If you are male and do not wish to have an aborted baby. There are time tested ways to reduce the chances of this happening. You spend time with your potential mate. You ask questions, share dreams and determine that your mate is compatible and shares your values, before you engage in the activities that can create life. This is not a guarantee, but it greatly reduces the odds of bad decisions. I admit this is hard because, it requires self-control, and self-denial. An activity also mocked in today’s society.

     If your only contribution was to put in the required three dates in the hopes of sampling the goods. Then wishing to use the power of the state to stop a woman from killing your baby. I have no sympathy for you. You will have earned your regret.

     I am pro-life. However, I do not believe you can legislate abortion away, only drive it back underground. The only way to achieve a pro-life society is to win the hearts and minds of the society. Therefore, making it socially unacceptable. This does not include enabling a law that could be viewed as less evil than the law you are trying to remove. If you fight evil with evil, evil still wins.

     God gave us the gift of life, and consequently, he also gave us an equal if not greater gift called free will.  I am sure that God realized that this gift could be used for great evil. However, it can also lead to greater good. If we only existed without choices, we would all just exist, but would not have the ability to rise to exceptional. And our culture has embraced free will and tried to incorporate it into our constitution. We tend to write laws to punish behavior, not to remove the choice. And laws that are designed to remove choice we tend to impugn.

     Consequently, the supporters of abortion have successfully crafted the issue to be an issue of choice. To make the only visible consequence of abortion laws are the removal of a woman’s right to choose. It allow the average person to rationalize the issue to a matter of choice, and avoid having to take a moral stand. Then they can say, “I would never have or encourage someone to have an abortion. I just don’t want to make that decision for someone else.” Then they can rationalize that they are only pro-choice, not pro-abortion.

     I could create several scenarios in which this proposed law could be abused, but in the interest in brevity, I will leave it alone.

     Another issue involved in this is truth. How do you determine the paternity of the father without a court ordered paternity test? All the woman would have to do convince some man to sign a paper for her. Then pretend he was the father. That could lead to a messy court battle to require a paternity test. And then what, all pregnancies requiring paternity test. Maybe not at the beginning, they will only require it if you want an abortion. It would just be another step for state encroachment.

     In short, I believe that the sin of abortion will be the sin our society will have to pay for in future generations. Much like the past sin of slavery still haunts our existence today. Therefore, the only way to minimize the cost is to remove it the proper way, without legislative short cuts.

     There are many hidden agendas that are hiding under the pro-choice argument. Maybe it is time to allow freewill, and make the argument about the consequence and truth of abortion, instead of a matter of choice.