Actions have consequences. A society is weakened, and risks crumbling, if too many people flout that grounding principle. Every responsible citizen would agree.
Yet right-wing lawmakers all around the country have been irresponsibly ignoring it when legislating more and more harsh laws against abortion. They see to it that only the actions of women who want to end pregnancies are subject to punitive legal action, too often even in cases of rape and incest — hateful acts of violence, not love.
What never seems to be taken into account is the obvious fact: It takes two to create a pregnancy. But the laws make no mention of the man, much less legislate consequences, meaning penalties, against him.
It’s mostly naked male chauvinism that makes women bear all the consequences when they rightfully should be equal for both. Every woman is profoundly changed when she goes through the long months of pregnancy and gives birth. Her life can never, ever be the same again. Happily, in most cases she welcomes the child because the daughter or son was created in a loving act with the man she loves. But if a woman is forced, not loved, into a pregnancy, the man responsible should face consequences that are just as profound as hers. His life should never, ever be the same again as well.
Even a scarlet letter “A” branded on his forehead wouldn’t be nearly enough. Full payment for the expenses of the birth and at least the early life of the child would be the least he should do. Some might even go so far as to exact the penalty of an irreversible vasectomy so he can never again impregnate any woman, even a willing partner.
Too harsh and unthinkable? That’s the verdict that should really be leveled against those recent new laws also.
Returning to the middle ground, expressed so well by Bill Clinton decades ago, abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” That is the responsible way forward in our nation.
Fred Reklau
Oak Park
