Abortion: Roe v. Wade Essay Example

One of the top talked about articles is of conversations on the Roe V. Wade court case. The Roe V. Wade case specifically protects women’s liberty in choosing to get an abortion without the intervention of government. Women having this liberty is important but can exclude men’s rights as a potential father. The National Census Bureau shows that men want to be part of their children’s lives and therefore want a say in the abortion conversation. Others want the Roe V. Wade case to stay because of the protection it gives for women. Because both men and women want to have rights in abortion; the Roe V. Wade should be overturned. The reason it should be overturned is because Roe V. Wade does not consider the rights of men.   

Introduction

In today’s society, fighting against inequality between genders and their rights has become a focus. As we fight for the equality of all, I have come to see that topic such as abortion may have inequality in several different aspects. I hope to shed light onto the inequality that can be seen when we talk about abortion. The importance of exposing such inequality is critical due to the growing social climate that is looking towards the justice system for revising its laws. During this year, the topic of the Roe V. Wade has been brought up in order to discuss the federal legality of abortion. There have been several arguments from people who are both Pro and Anti Roe V. Wade. In this article, we will discuss why some people want the court case to stay and why some would want it to be repealed. After discussing the importance of the case, we hope that you see why Roe V. Wade should be repealed because it promotes inequality for men. If the court ruling is to stay the same, then there is a possibility that men’s rights might be overlooked in other situations. While correcting this inequality is important, further research can be done to create a solution that benefits both genders. 

First, describing what the Roe V. Wade court case is and what implications it has should be done. One of the best ways to give a description on Roe V. Wade is by using a quote from organization of planned parenthood. It describes it by saying,

“On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Roe v. Wade, a challenge to a Texas statute that made it a crime to perform an abortion unless a woman’s life was at stake. The case had been filed by “Jane Roe,” an unmarried woman who wanted to safely and legally end her pregnancy. Siding with Roe, the court struck down the Texas law. In its ruling, the court recognized for the first time that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy” (Roe v. Wade, 1973).(planned parenthood article).

In essence, Roe V. Wade allows for women to have the liberty to have an abortion without the legal persecution by the government. While I do not have a problem with women having rights on the decision; Roe V. Wade does not give men an equal amount of rights.

Roe V. Wade’s allotment of rights is specifically targeted towards women. While we will talk about why this is later in the paper; it is important to get the males perspective on the case. One such author gives a perspective of what is currently given to men. Purvis says, “Commentators paint a picture of men as powerless pawns who have no agency either to embrace or reject fatherhood, subject to the whims of pregnant women with the ability to terminate at will and deprive a man of fatherhood”(Purvis, 2022). At the moment, men’s rights are not being considered. Fathers and potential fathers are being looked at as powerless pawns with no rights to fatherhood. Another article that shares the same concerns towards men’s rights  says, “the Roe Court chose not to discuss this issue, the father's rights have now become… the next question in the abortion debate”(walters, 1998). The amount of time that men have been unrepresented by the Roe V. Wade ruling is shocking to say the least. The conversation with the courts need to happen in order to decrease the inequality that is caused by favoring a single gender.  

Why might some think that men should be unrepresented? The answer may be because many believe that the current stereotypes of men and woman display the overall population of its gender. The belief is followed that if some men or woman are the description of the stereotype then the gender follows it as well. These are thoughts that may further describes the inequality towards men that we focus on during this article. These different stereotypes can be depicted through many different sources. We can give an example of a opinion article that says, “I don’t understand how our society keeps encouraging these irresponsible men”( Halem, K, 2018). This article depicts men as a general party rather than the individuals that we are. Kate Halem, the author of the quote above, explains that men are prompted by society in leaving their partnership or a possible chance to have a family. This depiction hurts the image of men and furthers the untrue generalization that all men want to be without child.

I make the argument that men actively want to be part of their family's lives. To prove that this is the case, we can look at the United States Census Bureau in order to give us a background into the percentage of dads who stay with their kids. In June of 2019, the Census Bureau released a survey Showing the percentage of men that stay with their children. If a father Stays with his child then he wants to be part of their lives. The graphic below shows that the majority of men stay with one or more of their offspring, this accounts for almost 80% of men surveyed in the U.S. Only 20% of men surveyed do not currently reside with their children. This argument can be connected to the percentage of men who want to be part of their unborn children’s lives. If such a high percentage want to stay with their child, then the consideration for men’s rights should be higher. Such considerations to their rights would include the repeal of the Roe V. Wade court case due to its unfairness to any gender besides women. Even though we dive into the deep considerations into men’s rights, it would be unfair to look past the rights of women. While being unfair to men, Roe V. Wade protects many of the rights that should be allotted towards women such as the personal choice in their bodies. Josefina Figueira-McDonough of Michigan state university writes that “a woman, in choosing to stop or continue a pregnancy, exercises a basic right of bodily integrity granted in the English common law tradition.” (Figueira-McDonough, 1989). This implies the fact that women’s very bodies are affected by child rearing. Due to the changes that pregnancies can bring, women should have rights given to them like the rights protected by the Roe V. Wade case.

I bring up women’s rights not to disprove my argument but rather to show that the rights of both males and females should be considered in a court ruling. Having rights that are equal should be the focus of law makers and judges. In the article How Do We Acquire Parental Responsibilities? It describes identical rights by saying, “If men and women have identical rights, this implies that either women do not have the right to avoid parenthood through abortion, or men possess a similar right”(Millum,2008). While this quote points out the black and white perspective of equal rights in abortion, there can be a grey, middle ground that connects the two. This middle ground is based off of including the opinions and rights of both genders. Including both will give precedent to equality unlike our current model of Roe V. Wade. Repealing the Roe V. Wade court case will open up room in the legal system that can promote practices that include the choice of both genders.

Roe V. Wade should be abolished because it only considers the choice of women which shows a legal inequality towards men. The inequality is shown by the legal case only protecting the rights of women. Having men being unrepresented has cast them into a negative light by many journalists stereotyping them as uncaring to their offspring and therefore shouldn’t be given choice on the topic of abortion. The opposite is shown by men wanting to be part of their children’s lives. Although Roe V. Wade should be abolished, the rights of women should be considered just as much as rights of men. While establishing equality is the most important thing to consider; there might be other circumstances that might give rise to issues. Such circumstances might include rape, not knowing who the father might be, or several other circumstances. Establishing methods for occurrences as these would be important for future studies. Abolishing the Roe V. Wade is important because doing so would allow our nation to come one step closer to having equality between men and women that we as a society strive to gain.