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A Fox News ‘Medical A-Team’ presenter has suggested men should be able to veto women's abortions, providing they are willing to care for the child after it is born.
Psychiatrist and author Keith Ablow appeared on an episode of Fox’s Outnumbered show, where a panel was discussing the on-going dispute over the future of two frozen embryos created by actress Sofia Vergara and her ex-fiancé Nick Loeb.
Vergara and Loeb signed a contract stipulating that the embryos could only be used with the consent of both parties, but Leob is trying to have the contract vetoed so he can have their children with a surrogate.
Ablow used his appearance to ridicule the Modern Family actress for not giving in to Loeb’s demands, insisting a woman's rights should not trump a man's.
“I don’t think she has [even] two per cent credibility in this matter,” he said. “The bottom line is why would a woman’s right to decide what to do with a frozen embryo trump a man’s right everytime? If he wants to bring these embryos to term, good for him. He wants to parent.
“It’s not a coin toss, it’s about whoever wants that potential being to survive — that’s who wins. She’s so liberal, Modern Family, anything goes! Interesting that when it comes to her choices in life, she wants all the control. Not very modern Sofia!"
He then digressed into wider issues surrounding abortion by claiming men should be able to prevent women from terminating a pregnancy, saying: “I think men should be able to veto women’s abortions if they are willing to care for the child after it is born."
His comments were unsurprisingly poorly received by both men and women on social media.
A spokesperson told The Independent: “Bpas went to court over this issue in the late 1970s when a man tried to prevent his estranged wife from having an abortion, and it’s now established that a man cannot compel a women to continue a pregnancy she wishes to end."
Fox News 'finest moments'
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The organisation said most men would not want to have that right and are instead supportive of their partner's chioces.
"But we should remember that while this Fox News man believes he should have a right to veto a woman’s abortion, politicians in Northern Ireland are right now exerting that very right over women living in that part of the UK. This is something we should all be agitated about.”
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