Should fathers have a say in abortion?

Andrew (No)

It's incredible it has to be said in today’s day and age that women are full and equal members of society, with autonomy over their bodies and the choices they make regarding abortion. There are many reasons why a woman may make the difficult choice to terminate a pregnancy, but there are no valid reasons why any man should be allowed to interfere with this decision process. As unseemly and dishonest as it may seem, the fact of the matter is that men always have the option to walk away from a woman they have impregnated, and women are always stuck with the burden. Because of this imbalance in how human reproduction works, decisions around abortion should reside solely with women. Further, it is the woman who must carry the baby for the length of the pregnancy and deliver it, making the entirety of the burden hers.

Just like men, women have multiple sexual partners, and in cases where a pregnancy occurs, it's not always possible to know who the father is without expensive and sometimes invasive testing. Requiring a woman to have a child against her will when it's not even clear whether the man making the demands is the father is completely immoral. If men don't want to have any of their prospective offspring aborted, they can make the simple decision not to engage in sexual intercourse or have a completely reversible vasectomy. Until they are in a situation where they are comfortable and in agreement with their partner about the timing to have a child and start a family, the decision is not theirs.

Luke (Yes)

Whether a parent wants their child or not, abortion is a permanent decision that intentionally ends the life of a genetically unique human being—something that can also devastate fathers who experience regret following abortion. Both parents are responsible for a pregnancy, as basic biology shows it takes two sexually-dimorphic parties to create human life. Genetically speaking, a baby has about half of the mother and half of the father’s DNA. While mothers are designed to carry their babies to term while fathers play no biological role in this stage, men are widely expected to support their child once he or she is born. Fathers also have rights after his child is born, and are likewise legally obligated to provide for and protect their child's life; their pre-born child's life is no less valuable or worthy of protection just because of where it resides. 

Even China—which recently ended its one-child policy that forced couples to abort any children beyond one—legally understood that fathers had say as to whether their child can be aborted. Moreover, the male population is directly affected by abortion, as practitioners do not often use ultrasounds to provide biological information, like the baby's gender, to the parents; therefore, males have a 50% chance of being aborted. But their chances significantly increase if a couple engages in prenatal discrimination and abort so they can try for a female later.  

With the egalitarian push for equality between the sexes, 'equality' here must mean that men—who provided about equal genetic material to the child's existence—should have an equal right to choose life for their unborn child and carry on their lineage.