It's not just her baby

Garrett Kell:

This is where a father’s responsibility must be highlighted. While the woman’s body is her body, it is not just her baby. It is their baby.

Regardless of whether they planned to have a child together or not, it is their baby. Regardless of whether the father desires to be responsible for his choices or not, it is their baby. This is true of every pregnancy, including the one I chose to take part in ending. When we had our abortion, it wasn’t my body, but it was my baby.

Please hold back any desire to roll your eyes here. There are few things more precious than a father’s love. This is one of the reasons the world has fallen in love with Jack and Randall from the hit show This Is Us. There’s something in us that want fathers like Jack and Randall; or if we are fathers, we want to be like them.

This is also why the Internet celebrated the father who charged a disgraced doctor who sexually assaulted his three daughters. The importance of fathers resonates within us all. Those who had wonderful fathers celebrate them and those who did not know the ache that is left behind.

Abortion is not just about a mother’s choice. It is also about a father’s responsibility. By perpetuating the lie that men need to stay out of the discussion about abortion-because it is a woman’s body-is not only untrue, it is catastrophic for generations to come.

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We need a generation of men who will love their unborn children and go the utmost lengths to encourage the mother to have their baby. They must be willing to help raise the child or place it for adoption.

We also need a generation of women who will encourage men to take responsibility and show the sacrificial love and empathy that ought mark men, not push them out of the conversation about abortion.

Though abortion uniquely affects women, it is not only about women. It is also about the child in her womb, and the child’s father.

Because in the end it is her body, but it is their baby.