Letters to the Editor

This letter is associated with the following article:
Yet another look at Dalton Conley's call for men's rights in abortion decisions.
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    What the...?

    One argument that I have heard all my life (fortunately for me, abortions have been legal my entire existence) against women obtaining abortions is that if they didn't want kids, they shouldn't be having sex. Shouldn't the same argument be applied to men?

    Furthermore, we live in a culture/society where men are the sexually dominant figures. Men are allowed to pressure women into having sex and if a woman refuses then she can be punished (listen to Howard Stern or Tom Lykus (spelling) for a while and that point becomes very clear). I am a sexual assault victim advocate and I talk to a lot of young women who attend high school or college about sexual advances and pressure to have sex. Across the board they state very clearly (and reinforce the environment I remember from high school and college) that there is a lot of pressure from young men/men to have sex, even if the woman doesn't want to. Men should also know the possible consequences for having sex. One of those consequences is parenthood.

    The last thing I would like to state is that, biologically speaking, women have a higher reproductive cost than men to reproduce. Plus, women have a limited amount of opportunities to have children, while a man's opportunities are almost limitless. If a woman decides to take advantage of the reproductive situation she is in, it's her decision. The same argument can be used for a woman's right to choose to have an abortion based on her interest in experiencing the reproductive costs.