Men, Time to Speak Up!

With women's reproductive rights on the line, men must not shrink from their responsibility to speak up in support of abortion

With news of the impending defenestration of Roe v. Wade in the United States, it's time to dust off the draft of a paper I wrote in 2019, but wasn't able to properly run through the editing cycles, on the role to men have to play in actively supporting a woman's right to choose to terminate a pregnancy. If all goes well, I’ll publish it behind the paywall within the next month or so. Now more than ever, men need not only to be passively supportive of the full suite of women's reproductive options, including abortion, but they should also be vocal and visible in their support.

Men, the women around you are terrified right now.

They are watching you closely - your body language, your verbal communication, your written comments - to determine if you are safe, or if you are someone who might judge them - or worse - for their health care needs.

Men, I can guarantee with near certainty that you know more than one woman, likely someone very close to you, who has terminated at least one pregnancy, whether she has told you or not.

Now's not the time for men to be quiet about women's reproductive health. Yes, we let the women around us lead with the messaging, but we must use our voices and, whenever possible, our power, to actively thwart those who would send women back to darkened hallways, dying from rusted coat hangers and Lysol. From a June 2019 article in The Atlantic,

Matt Garbett has been actively recruiting men to participate in abortion-rights events with him. Something that’s been on his mind a lot lately is how men’s participation in the abortion-rights movement could be helpful in situations where men’s voices are taken more seriously than women’s. “The men who don’t get it, unfortunately, need to hear from other men,” he said. After that first meeting, Garbett tweeted a pledge to bring 10 more men with him to the next one.

Let me quickly add that Canadians should not be complacent. Just because Stephen Woodworth is no longer an MP doesn't mean that an increasingly radical Conservative party led by Pierre Poilievre would maintain the long-standing claim that Canadian Conservatives do not want to roll back abortion rights in Canada. Emboldened by such a forceful repudiation of Roe v. Wade in the United States, they may be willing to make their intentions crystal clear. In Ontario, the young Progressive (sic) Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoff, fresh off image rehabilitation in the form of all party support for a standard conservative foil, a motion on religious freedom, in 2021 gave a talk to a number of campus conservative groups on 'ending abortion in [his] lifetime.' He's up for re-election in Niagara on June 2, and is almost certainly going to be returned to Queens Park.

If you are in the Waterloo Region, now is a good time to make a financial donation to the SHORE Centre, an organization which “offers exceptional and inclusive sexual and reproductive health services in our community that uphold the dignity of everyone.”