3 Reasons Abortion Is Also A Men’s Rights Issue

Abortion, usually 8 weeks or beforehand but not always, is when a pregnant woman or trans man decides to attempt to terminate a pregnancy. It usually succeeds, but not always, as in the case of my friend Mason, who’s mother attempted to abort him, but it didn’t work. I was also going to be an abortion, but the person who had tried to force my mother to if she ever got pregnant was aborted out of her life.

The US is divided on the issue. Several surveys find interesting, differing, results, with most finding similar rates of pro-life men and women, though it tends to differ based off of party identification and religious identification.

It’s also important to note that every pro-life person I’ve personally met is female.

Survey 1. Gallup, 2018-2021.

Group/Identification	Pro-Choice	Pro-Life
Average
Gender –Men –Women	45.75% 49%	49% 45.5%
Party –Republican –Democratic	27.25% 69.25%	69% 26.75%
Religion –Protestant/Christian –Catholic –None/Atheist/Agnostic	40% 40% 77%	56% 55% 19%
2018
Gender –Men –Women	47% 48%	49% 47%
Party –Republican –Democratic	29% 70%	69% 26%
Religion –Protestant/Christian –Catholic –None/Atheist/Agnostic	40% 40% 77%	56% 55% 19%
2019
Gender –Men –Women	48% 43%	46% 51%
Party –Republican –Democratic	27% 66%	68% 30%
2020
Gender –Men –Women	43% 53%	51% 41%
Party –Republican –Democratic	30% 68%	66% 27%
2021
Gender –Men –Women	45% 52%	50% 43%
Party –Republican –Democratic	23% 73%	73% 24%

Pew Research Center

Vox

However, abortion affects everyone, just in different ways. Here are 3 reasons abortion is a Men’s Rights issue.

1.) Trans men

The first, and most obvious, reason, is trans men. Trans men are people who were born female and then transitioned to male. Most trans men can give birth. And even though I would personally never get an abortion, other trans men are affected by this. (I don’t know why trans men are ignored in the abortion debate – we can give birth too.)

2.) False rape accusations

The second reason, and much less known, is that abortion being banned will up false accusations. Before Roe v Wade was made law, some women, desperate for abortions, would falsely accuse a man of rape so that they could get it (and in states with incest, not rape, the reason, they falsely accused a male family member, such as a father, son, brother, uncle, cousin, etc.). As Warren Farrell pointed out in the Myth of Male Power (pages 329-330):

Abortion Laws

ITEM. In order to get an abortion, Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, claimed she was raped. Fourteen years later, she acknowledged she had lied.

If a teenage girl cannot get an abortion unless she says she was raped, she will feel pressure to claim she was raped. The next question is: “What as the rapist?” Net, there’s a lineup of men. Which often pits the future of an unwed teenage girl against “some boy out there.” Next, the media has convicted him. If the boy tries to defend himself by suing for libel, he only gives the girl and incentive never to confess that her accusation is false. If he doesn’t sue for libel, he’s left defenseless. He loses if he defends himself, and loses if he doesn’t.

Is it possible to allow the woman just to say, “I need an abortion–I was raped,” without trying to find the rapist? No. This is the same as abortion on demand with the downside of making the woman a liar and the rape statistics soar.

When abortion is made :illegal except in the case of incest,” a woman will feel pressure to report a family member–usually her father, stepfather, uncle, or brother–in order to get an abortion. This does not encourage family unity.

Meanwhile, the falsely accused man loses his job and his reputation–even if the woman later reveals, as did Jane Roe, that she “had to claim rape” just to get an abortion. By accusing a man to free a woman, have we really come any further than when we accused blacks to free whites? What used to make both races paranoid now makes both sexes paranoid. When it happens to blacks, we call it racism; when it happens to men, we call it women’s liberation.

Now here’s the rub: Every false report makes police and judges doubt women who genuinely have been raped.

Farrell, Warren. (1993). The Myth of Male Power: When Men Are the Disposable Sex. New York: Simon & Schuster.

However, that does not necessarily meant that this is a reason to support abortion. As ericlauder pointed out to me in a comment:

Interesting, but the second argument is a great mistake: the threat of women committing more crimes against men in the form of false accusations is not a good reason to support abortion, quite the opposite – the same argument, “to avoid false accusations”, was used by Reagan to enact no-fault divorce at the expense of men when he was California governor. And we know how it ended.

If there has to be more paranoia between sexes, then it doesn’t matter: MRA must place men’s rights even above society general wellbeing. Because the main weakness of men is always to prioritize general wellbeing (“women and children”) over themselves: this have to change or we’ll never achieve anything relevant.

However, that leaves the case of false rape accusations for abortion open to dialogue on how to solve. What do you think is a solution to this problem? Please comment it.

3.) Men are half of the parents affected by abortion

This one is obvious. It’s either the most known reason (before trans men) or is the second most known. Men are half of the parents. This may help push down child support until we can get rid of it. Meanwhile, it’s important to keep in mind that men should also at least be able to talk with the individual wanting an abortion, to see how each person feels about it. Not only does it get both people closer usually to talk about it, but it makes people generally more honest, and allows people to understand what the other person is going through. And while I made it clear to my boyfriend I would never get an abortion (he was like “ok”), other people may want to talk more about it.

Also, it’s important to note that an abortion carried out or not carried out also affects men psychologically, and in surprisingly similar ways. (Will be shown in a future article.)