This is an interesting question. I have been thinking about it for several days. I am pro-choice, but I am not interested in sparking a Roe vs. Wade debate either. I do believe that aborting and walking away from a child are in the same category. However, the aftereffects are very different. Who is affected when a woman aborts a child? At most, herself, the child and the father of the child. Who is affected when a man decides to walk away from his children? Our entire society. Prison cells are full of men who did not have fathers in the home. A tremendous burden has been placed on African American society in particular, because of absentee fathers. All of the responsibility is laid on the mother's shoulders. Some women are able to successfully raise boys into men. But many aren't. What if she didn't have a father when she was growing up? If the example was not set for her, and there is no man in the home, how can she be both mother and father to her child? I believe that this is why the penal system claims so many of our young men, and the welfare system claims so many of our young women.
This whole situation has become a vicious cycle. As long as society thinks that baby's momma's and baby's daddy's are an acceptable substitute for husbands and wives, things aren't going to change.
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"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on." ~Robert Frost
[This message has been edited by MIDWESTDIVA (edited January 11, 2001).]
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