First off, we at 6th Sense Solutions do not believe that men should be involved in drafting legislation and laws around pregnancy and abortion! What is physically necessary for a man to participate in a pregnancy? Almost nothing, except to provide a little bit of genetic material! What is physically necessary for a woman to participate in a pregnancy? She gets to carry around the pregnancy for up to NINE months, all the while dealing withe physical changes that the pregnancy causes to HER body. It seems unconscionable for men to assert control over this process. If men could get pregnant, there would be an amendment in the Constitution, just like the Second Amendment, protecting the right to get an abortion.
For a quick review, the Texas law empowers anybody to sue in civil court anyone who aids a woman in getting an abortion after six weeks. If found guilty, the fine can be up to $10,000. This law is very broad allowing things like suing the Uber driver who drives the woman to an abortion clinic. Clearly this law was designed to intimidate people, and prevent them from exercising their rights as laid out under Roe v Wade.
We at 6th Sense Solutions DO NOT support the idea of vigilante justice that the Texas law promotes. However; if we are going to allow laws like the one in Texas to stand then we propose that other states take the Texas legislation and replace references to abortion with “commit a crime with a gun”. This could provide a strong legal tool for dealing with gun violence in our country, which currently kills 30,000+ people per year.
Two things should also be noted. First, restricting abortion leads to unwanted children. Unwanted children turn into the juvenile delinquents and criminals of tomorrow. States that restrict abortion now, are setting themselves up for an increase in crime in 15-20 years. For more on this listen to the Freakomics podcast. Second, forcing women to carry a pregnancy to term leads to women in poverty. Nowhere in any of these anti-abortion bills is there any financial assistance for woman who would otherwise have an abortion. So do we feel just fine telling woman that they have to carry the pregnancy to term, and then deal with the financial consequences themselves? This is ridiculous!! Do we really want the pregnant 18 year old woman, who is set to go to college, to have to change her entire life’s plan due to this pregnancy? Force her to have a child at 18? Wouldn’t we rather have her go to college, become financially stable, and possibly have a child later in life when she is ready?
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men
– Frederick Douglass
I recently gave a presentation to my ToastMasters group on this subject, and here’s a link to my slideshow that went with the presentation.
Presentation on the Texas abortion law
By Jon deLeeuw