Abortion Clinics as Contraception Schoolrooms

Abortion Clinics as Contraception Schoolrooms:

Helping Men Reduce Abortion's Toll The Supreme Court nomination of a local jurist, Appeals Court Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr.,  calls overdue attention to the missing party where abortions are concerned, namely, the male who helped set the conception in motion in the first place.  

Ever since Roe v. Wade a small number of heartsick or outraged males have gone to the courts seeking pre-notification of an impending abortion (an Alioto preference). This  delaying move would allow the male to make a case for childbirth rather then the termination of a contested pregnancy.  Some few have actually sought a ban.  Courts at all  levels have denied both pleas, siding over and again with Roe's clear declaration that a woman and her physician - and only these two - can decide the matter.

Is anything at all owed a male who finds himself involved in an abortion?  Pre-notification would seem superfluous, as the only women who do not share the decision beforehand generally have good reason not to (they fear serious abuse, and/or believe the father is not the male of the moment).  Similarly, granting a male a veto would result in a compulsory pregnancy, presumably prohibited by the Constitutional Amendment against all forms of slavery. The idea is noxious and unworthy of serious judicial consideration. Males, however, are owed something, namely, the sort of consideration at the heart of the Roe decision. 

Males are owed an opportunity to do better next time, even as an abortion on request gives that opportunity to females.  More specifically, males are owed the sort of education in contraception that just might help many avoid their first, or their repeat involvement in an ill-timed and unwanted pregnancy. Nearly 700,000 guys annually cool their heels in the waiting rooms of the nation's 400-plus abortion clinics. Were they soon to learn what most do not now know about contraception, the annual abortion count might drop by many tens of thousands every year thereafter.  While nearly all of them regard the experience as one of the most trying of their lives, one in four is a repeater (as are one in three women).

If Judge Alioto wants to make a real contribution to reducing the frequency and toll of abortions he and other concerned jurists might give up their sexist support for odious nuisance pleas (pre-notification, etc.).  In its place they might encourage legislatures to require abortion clinics to offer contraception education for waiting room males.  As such advocacy would provide a common ground for both anti-abortion and pro-choice forces, this is a type of activist behavior by jurists even the Right might support.

We have a rare opportunity here to help a very large number of guys become more responsible sex partners and more mature individuals.  Abortion clinics require them to wait for nearly two hours, time that could be spent answering their many questions about how to avoid a repeat appearance at the clinic.  Judge Alioto and others serious about helping husbands (and single men alike) do better in these intimate matters should weigh educational policy options, rather than favor cruel impediments championed only by anti-abortion extremists.

Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Department of Culture and Communication, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104