I write this to America’s pro-choice community.
It seems that a shop-worn old theme you people regurgitate from time to time is back making the rounds once more. On several radio talk shows I’ve done recently, I have been admonished that I have no right to be involved in the abortion issue because I am male. Some of you have even gone so far as to advocate that only female elected officials be allowed to vote on legislation that might impact abortion.
Even if we ignore your blatant sexism, I advise you to be careful what you ask for. After all, when polls are broken down by gender, they consistently find that women oppose abortion at a higher rate than men, are more opposed to government funding of abortion, are more active in the pro-life movement, and are more likely to favor banning abortion outright. In other words, if you exclude men, support for legal abortion plummets.
The reality is the most numerous proponents of legalized abortion are men. Of course, that makes perfect sense given that men are the ones who most profit from it. That is why, with almost no exceptions, pioneers of the women’s movement like Susan B. Anthony, Mattie Brinkerhoff, Sarah Norton, Emma Goldman, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were outspoken opponents of legalized abortion. It is also true that suffragist newspapers such as Woodhull’s and Claflin’s Weekly had editorial policies that openly attacked both abortion and abortionists. Even Alice Paul, the woman who wrote the original Equal Rights Amendment, considered legalized abortion to be the ultimate exploitation of women.
These early feminists saw that abortion is patronizing and paternalistic and that it doesn’t free women, it devalues them. They understood that, as a practical matter, legalized abortion is nothing more than a safety net for sexually predatory and sexually irresponsible men. And if the last 35 years have proven nothing else, they have proven that these women hit that nail on the head. It is now clear that the legalization of abortion, and the willingness of women to submit to it, are the two greatest gifts these kind of men have ever received.
If you want to see that played out in the real world, stand in front of an abortion clinic on a day when pro-lifers are there trying to offer women alternatives to having their babies killed. What you will quickly discover is that the most vicious and violent reactions they get are not from these women, but from the men who are dragging them in by the elbows. The fact is, regardless of what you think about the abortion issue, you would have to be a certifiable idiot to think that women are the ones who profit from putting their feet in the abortion industry’s stirrups. On the other hand, you can be certain that every man who ever put a woman in that position was fully aware of whose interests were being served.
Now if your point is that men should be excluded simply because we can’t get pregnant, let me ask you about women who can’t get pregnant. Is it your view that the only women who should be allowed to have an opinion about abortion are those who are a) fertile and still in their child-bearing years, b) sexually active with males, and c) not practicing birth control? If so, that is going to thin your herd even further.
I have also noticed that those of you who take this “no men allowed” approach always seem to have an exception for pro-choice men. For example, I have never heard one of you tell that paragon of respect for women, Bill Clinton, to keep out of the abortion issue. Neither do you ever argue that the 1973 Supreme Court had no right to be involved in the Roe vs. Wade decision, despite the fact every member was male. You don’t even seem to mind that the overwhelming majority of abortionists who make their fortunes off women are men, and you never say anything about the male “escorts” who work at the abortion mills. You don’t even say anything about men who force women to have abortions. Evidently, the only men for whom you have contempt, and the only men you want censored, are those who think women deserve better than abortion.
My final point is one I do not expect you to understand, but I’m going to make it anyway. Men do not merely have a right to speak out against abortion; we have a responsibility to do so. Real men do not just stand around with their hands in their pockets while people like you slaughter helpless children by the millions. So you may as well get used to the fact that, as long as your death camps are churning out dead bodies, many of the people fighting you will be men.
Related special offers:
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“Struggling for Life: How our Tax Dollars and Twisted Science Target the Unborn”
Mark Crutcher is president of Life Dynamics Incorporated of Denton, Texas.
