Is There a Double Standard for Responsibility in Right to Life and Pro Choice

A few weeks back I submitted an article questioning men's rights and women's rights in the abortion issue so hot in the United States. With people screaming obscenities at each other on each side of the issue being near one extreme and others cackling on about how the "product of conception" is or is not human being somewhere in between all the way to people shooting others being the far end, it would appear there is no peaceful place in this controversy.

When the spotlight of the former article concluded on the front page of Associated Content I committed to nothing, but posed the possibility that I would revisit this issue later and left it at that until now. It seems that now that the holidays are over and we are back to our ordinary lives and our regimens of daily contrivance we should perhaps have a second look at the possibility that a double standard does exist. It will be interesting to look at the reasons people believe it may or why they believe it may not be so.

I thought it would be interesting to conduct an experiment in which we would question the rights and motives declared by each side of the issue. I thought it would be interesting to learn if the motives of "Right to Choice" were sincere. The aggressively argued point regarding the "life" status of the product of conception is what stands to lose the most and has no voice, so I would like to provide the embodiment of that voice. While I do the best I can to be that voice-silent-it should be interesting to read what the sounds are of those who argue the points of those who have earned a voice.

To do this I "questioned" AC readers of my original article and overwhelmingly the women or females taunt that men can be in charge of the conception by using birth control means that prevent the occurrence of unwanted pregnancy that he may not wish to finance. That struck me as a thing women could also do. So, I wondered, why do women get an additional opportunity to choose whether or not to have a child and become a parent and men do not?

In addition to that, they claim overwhelmingly -with some notable exceptions- that if the men do not care enough to use birth control then men should not be dis-enfranchised when they are held financially accountable for the resultant child, or the resultant abortion. All of this is dependent entirely upon a woman's choice. Again, women are permitted to have an abortion and extract themselves from responsibility with the very same option as men to avoid pregnancy all together using birth control measures.

My questions are these:

A. If men are to be held accountable for life for the child, should men be offered the same protection
under the law from unwanted pregnancy as women?

B. Since women can use birth control as well as men, should they be offered an option to carrying
a child to term while men have no word or voice in that similar matter?

C. Is there an existing double standard that favors women and extracts men from an equation that
does ultimately involve him?

D. Do women and men have an equal and shared obligation to responsible sexual activity or is it
only the man who has to be held accountable?