I finally watched Sauti Sol’s Nerea video today. The song asks a girl (Nerea) who is carrying a baby not to have an abortion. The father-to-be is asking the Nerea to have the baby and he will raise it. The song says that the child could grow up to be somebody famous. The song has had mixed reviews with many asking why a man should ask a woman not to have an abortion after all it’s her body.
Let me weigh in on this issue. First of all, I am a pro-choice advocate. I believe that a woman has the right to decide whether she wants to have a baby or not. That said I am of the religious view that whatever you do has consequences spiritual and otherwise. I don’t believe that in the case of rape or when the life of a woman is in danger that abortion is something to argue about. I think in these cases if a woman wants to have an abortion then she should be allowed. For me, that is not a grey area.
Even though I am pro-choice I don’t think that a woman should procure abortions every time she gets careless or contraception falls. That is being irresponsible. I do think that there are situations where a woman has to make tough decisions about having a baby. It is very easy to judge when you are on the outside but you are not the one who will raise that child. There is always a moral choice but I don’t believe we should force a woman to carry a baby just so that we as a society can say that we are humane yet we will not have to raise that child.
Anyway in the case at hand Sauti Sol and Josh and Amos were pleading with Nereal not to have an abortion. I believe that a father also has rights. I don’t think that he should be able to demand for a woman having an abortion to keep a baby. But I do believe he should be able to ask for consideration if the woman who is having the baby is having an abortion. In this case, the man is saying that he will take responsibility to raise the child. So he is not asking Nerea to have the baby then he walks away as so many men do nowadays.
Women have rights to their bodies. They have a right to decide if they are going to have a baby. But why should a woman who wants to have a baby have all the rights and she expects a man to support the baby even if he didn’t want the baby but men who want the baby and will support the baby have no rights?
These are conversations we should be having. There is no right or wrong answer but if people are in an intimate relationship this is something they should be thinking about. Because condoms and other contraceptives can fail and what will one do then?
The biggest issue I have with that song is them saying that Nerea should not abort because the child could end up being famous. That actually seems to be more of what the song is, saying how the child could end up being a famous personality like some of the people mentioned. A child should be brought into the world because they will be loved and cared for, not because of who they will become. Because that makes the love for the child conditional on the potential of the child. What if the child is born with a disability? Will that child be loved when that child does not go through the normal childhood milestones? Or if the child will have to be taken care of all their life because they are unable to do things for themselves because of a mental disability. The song would have been better if they had focused on the things that the father will do with his child rather then singing about how the child’s potential as the central theme.
I know this song has opened a can of worms but I think these are issues that need to be discussed.
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