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If it takes two to tango, a couple to copulate, and a pair to procreate, then not only a wife should decide whether or not to carry a conception to term.

Aside from cases of marital rape and domestic violence, spousal consent should be required for a married woman to have an abortion.

A divorced, single or widowed woman, who has never taken a civil or religious vow of fidelity, respect and honour to a man should not need his consent to abort, even if he is the father, and, in the case of unmarried women, the law has no way of proving, short of post partum DNA testing, the identity of the actual dad in order to enforce paternal consent for abortion.

However, a married woman who has taken a legally and religiously binding vow to her husband, who is in all likelihood the expectant father, should require her spouse's consent, by virtue of the marriage vows she willingly took to her husband.

Marriage is an institution of mutuality, protracted, at least in part, to provide a solid environment for the rearing of children. In society's social consciousness, children are one expected outcome of marriage, and while couples are free to remain childless, the choice to abort and remain childless, or the choice to abort and limit family size, just like every other vital decision in marriage, must be considered and consented to by both married parties.

A married woman voluntarily agrees to share her body with her husband and commits to sexual exclusivity with her husband when she takes her civil and religious vows in marriage. She thus voluntarily forfeits at least some her independent autonomy over her body for the sake of the marriage union. Since the two parties become one in marriage, in spirit AND body, BOTH the wife AND the husband, therefore, must decide how to raise, and if they wish to raise, children that result from this legally and ethically binding sexual exclusivity. Married women should therefore require the consent of the other married party, the husband, prior to having an abortion.

Father's rights are especially important for married men who expect, (understandably) to have equal roles in parenthood. Some fathers feel biologically discriminated against, since they are physically incapable of carrying children themselves, and thus cannot compel the mother to either abort or to take the pregnancy to term. Moreover, family courts make no distinction between willing and unwilling fathers when upholding child support and paternal obligations in family custody cases.

But

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