Paul Ryan: A Big Government Conservative

[tonymctones]

one could say that by voluntarily agreeing to sex the man concedes he does not have and never had any control over the womans body.  Furthermore he concedes that in the case of pregnancy the woman has the sole right to make the decision whether to have an abortion or whether to give birth thereby making them both financially responsible for the consequences of their sexual encounter

agreed but then you would have to concede that two are not equal. Not that this is a bad thing but the whole idea of the womens rights movement and further more the liberal movement is for equality...

[tonymctones]

If that were true, then it would not apply to cases of rape, or when the woman used birth control and it failed, or in cases when the woman simply didn't want to have a child and got pregnant on accident. All of these would make abortion 100% legal and accessible for practical reasons, simply because it would be impossible for the government to determine in a free society whether or not the woman was lying about the pregnancy being an accident.

Furthermore, even if the woman wanted to become pregnant, that does not mean that she is entering into a long-term contract - she still has the right to change her mind at any point and determine that she wants to terminate the pregnancy.

Lastly, as I briefly mentioned in a previous post, it is a bit of a stretch to extend rights to the unborn. Rights only exist in a social context - I do not adhere to the view that rights are God-given or naturally endowed. So from this perspective, it would appear that the unborn do not have any rights since they obviously do not engage in society or even exist within the "social context."

I agree that the father shouldn't be held legally responsible for a child born out of wedlock. Again, engaging in sex does note constitute entering into a long-term contract.

Though in cases of marriage or when the mother/father do make an agreement to have a child, the circumstances change, and thus the father should be held legally responsible - and at the same time the decision to terminate the pregnancy no longer is just the mother's, but also the father's. But at no point is this a decision to be made by the government.

I disagree with the idea that the concept applies to situations outside of rape. Contraception isnt 100% effective so even when using it you know the risk of pregnancy and accept them.

But I agree in the case of rape it isnt necissarily right to make the women keep the child. I can understand how if a person believes all life is precious and starts at conception how ppl can come to the conclusion all abortion is wrong though.

I just think the man should be held to the same rules as the women is all. If she gets the right to walk away so should the man.