by Dheer Kothari

Created on: May 31, 2009

A relationship is never one-sided. It is predicated on mutual trust and confidence. Abortion is largely induced by socio-economic factors like income levels, social taboos including sex determination and above health reasons.

No one other than the male partner would know more about the mother's needs and her psychology. Unwanted pregnancies need not always be dependent on the decision of the mother. The father could play a constructive role in ensuring a safe abortion in pre-abortion and post-abortion stages, especially in cases where the mother is not fully aware of the safe abortion guidelines and practices in place.

If the father's intervention helps in ensuring safe and timely abortion, it should only be encouraged. Besides, fathers have to be themselves responsible for their behavior and this can only happen when they are fully aware of what are the implications of medical and surgical methods of abortion. Unless they know why a particular method is advisable they would be in the dark and would repeat mistakes as a result of their ignorance.

Fathers who have a say would be curious to know the pros and cons of abortion, its side effects, post-abortion care and prevention techniques to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Fathers should actually be encouraged to share responsibility in matters of contraception. Any awareness campaign would be incomplete without the participation of fathers because responsible behavior is the key determinant of a safe abortion programme.

Both the father and the mother need to know the side effects of unsafe abortions like septicaemia, peritonitis, septic shock etc and what extra care needs to be taken in case of complicated pregnancies like pre-existence of anaemia.

I confess that I have suffered the trauma of unwanted pregnancies of my wife because I did not get proper counseling on this issue. Had I known that no contraception method is fool-proof I would have been more careful in using a particular method. Like me, thousands of fathers would have suffered the consequences of unsafe abortions and unfortunate deaths of their spouses.

In any case, most countries have made it mandatory for written consent of the couple before an abortion is carried out. When responsible behavior is a shared responsibility there is no justification to pre-empt fathers from ensuring that unwanted pregnancies do not become a health hazard for their spouses. Fathers, however, should go a step further and ensure that pregnancies do not become a farce.

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