by Melissa Cavanaugh

Created on: January 16, 2009

Abortion is a terribly controversial issue, and trying to convince one side to agree with the other is not going to happen in one article. What makes America a wonderful, free country is that we have choice in many areas, we are able to choose what we do with our lives, how we will live them. What is not right is the fact that one person can legally take the life of another, regardless of the circumstance. Unborn babies do not have rights because they are not yet born. If the baby's mother decides she doesn't want it, she has the freedom to end its life. SHE decides. End of story. Or is it?

What about the father? Doesn't he deserve some say? I believe he does. The baby that could eventually grow into a child, an adult, could be the father's son, his daughter, the parent of his future grandchildren. No one has the right to take that person away from the father. He had a part in creating the baby, and he does have a right in its life. If the mother does not want the baby, she has every right to give birth to the baby, and then terminate her parental rights. If the father has a say in the matter, he should be able to raise that baby as his own. Just because the mother doesn't want it should not mean that the baby will not get to live its life. If the baby's father is willing to take that baby on and care for it, how dare the mother presume to end the baby's life and steal that parental right from the father.

On the other hand, what if the mother wants to keep the baby, and the father does not. If one parent wants the baby, and the other wants to abort it - let the baby live. Someone wants it.

Now a married mom of three boys who make me proud on a daily basis, I know what it is like to face an unplanned, frightening pregnancy. I was pregnant as a teen. The easy answer would have been to get an abortion, rather than face my very strict and conservative parents with the fact that I was expecting a baby at the same time that THEY were expecting my much-younger baby sister. It would have been simpler to stop the fighting with my boyfriend and just end the pregnancy. He wanted the baby. I wanted the baby. Even if one of us did not, I can't imagine not having my smart, musically-gifted honor roll son in my life. He is funny, handsome, and such a joy each and every day. Is it possible that one parent could tell the other that their child will not live life? How dare anyone have the right to tell a child like him that he doesn't deserve to live. How dare someone tell his father, you are DENIED your rights to let your son live.

His father and I worked through our problems and are so happily married. Just because one parents doesn't want a baby, such as the mother, doesn't mean the father shouldn't get a chance to have the kind of relationship with the child that I've got with my son. If someone had told me "NO! You don't get to have your baby. An abortion is happening and there is nothing that you can do about it!" - that would have been the cruelest act known to man.

The father deserves the chance to know his child. The weakest argument for abortion is "My body, my choice". Please. I realize the mother is the one carrying the baby in "her" body. What about the baby's body? Who is caring about what happens to his or her tiny, helpless body? The father cares. Let him raise that baby, support it, be there for the child as he/she grows into a young man or woman, and help them make good choices in their own life. I would trade nothing in the world for having my family. ALL of my family.

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