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Dear Mr. Lee,

I read your article on abortion and men the other day and I have to say I was torn between being disgusted and wanting to laugh.

I'm guessing no one has every enlightened you with the knowledge of bodily domain rights. All citizens of the United States are entitled to the right of bodily domain. Which means all citizens have the right to their body and no person can take that right away from them or use their body for their own means. This right has been set in precedent through many court cases including the Supreme Court case Shimp v. McFall (a case where one party was suing for an injunction in order to force the other party into being tested for a bone marrow match and, if matched, the giving up of said bone marrow). Here is a quote from Judge Flaherty (one of the Supreme Court Justices) that I think is very fitting with this subject.

"For our law to compel the defendant to submit to an intrusion of his body would change the very concept and principle upon which our society is founded...to sink its teeth into the jugular vein or neck of one of its members and suck from it sustenance for another member, is revolting to our hard-wrought concept of jurisprudence."

Why I think this fits in is because it shows no person can legally force another to use their body in a way they do not want no matter what is on the line for the forcer. No man has the right to tell a woman how to use her body. Just like no woman can tell a man what to do with his.

It isn't just women who have the ability to make the decision of whether a couple has offspring or not. A man can have a vasectomy to make himself sterile. He does not need his partner's approval for this even if she someday wants children. She may not be pregnant yet, but this case would definitely effect the potential of having children and effect them both just like a woman having an abortion would. Just as it is a woman's choice to abort, it is a man's decision to have himself sterilized and any woman who wants to become a mother by him can do anything to stop him.

It isn't sexism to want to protect one's bodily domain. A woman being able to decide what happens to her body is equal rights.

Now I think, to put it in simple terms, it pretty much sucks when there is a situation where one party wants to be a parent and the other does not (women aren't the only ones who want a pregnancy to end. Some men try to force their partner to abort a pregnancy because they don't want to be a parent). The only way to stop these situations from arising is for both parties to talk about their feelings on pregnancy at that time in their lives and what each party would want to happen and then take the necessary precautions. The way I see it, if a man wants to be a father he needs to find a woman who is ready to be a mother. Just like a woman who wants to be a mother needs to find a man who is ready to be a father. To force parenthood, pregnancy, or the mix of the two on anyone is not fair to either party and a gross violation of rights.

About the women who think men aren't essential to reproduction, to some extent they are right. Men give sperm the rest happens in the woman's womb. The woman's nutrients are used; her body is what the fetus uses to develop. A man has no part in this. An essential bit is given by a man in reproduction but he in himself is not essential to the big picture of reproduction. For the most part, all is given by the woman, but I do not think this makes a man's opinion null and void in what should happen to the pregnancy. All men should be able to have their opinion made known to their partner, but that is all. As I have said before, no person can legally force another to use their body in a way they do not want it used.

I hope this has given you something to think about.

Sincerely,
Ms. Tiffany Kraus




http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~ras2777/judpol/mcfall.html