With the Supreme Court effectively ending a woman’s constitutional right to abortion via the Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, women around the country have few choices if they find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. But women aren’t the only ones affected. A recent study suggests 1 in 5 men have impregnated someone who’s had an abortion. Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette is thinking about the ruling’s impact on men and asking that they step up and take responsibility:
Lately I’ve heard a lot of people say that young women should be careful not to get pregnant. Yet I haven’t heard many people say that young men should be careful not to get young women pregnant. The Right gives us a “Handmaid’s Tale” version of the world where women have no autonomy or dignity. And the Left in response offers up a hardcore feminist roar that says that women should be the only ones participating in the abortion debate.
What do these two narratives have in common? Yeah, they both make men irrelevant. And men, ah, we’ve only been too happy to take advantage of that. And back away from the abortion debate, like it was a honey-do list of chores on Super Bowl Sunday. Gone are the days of what used to be called being a stand-up guy. Remember the words of the prophet — Bruce. In his classic ballad, “The River,” Springsteen tells the tale of a young man whose life’s dreams were derailed by a bad choice, when abortion was not on the table:
“Then I got Mary pregnant
And man, that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday
I got a union card and a wedding coat.”Some women are catching on, like the sweet, grandmotherly type, who at a recent abortion rights protest after Dobbs, held up a sign that read, “Regulate the dick, not the Jane.” Their framing of the abortion debate is sexist and antiquated and it puts an unfair burden on women. Worse, the burden then gets disguised as freedom. How sneaky is that?
Look, there’s no question that the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs impacts women more directly than men. But the truth is that this decision will and should have some impact on men. Most of all, it will likely impact men who get women pregnant. What do we expect from them? The answer can’t be, “well, not much,” because the question of what to do about an unwanted pregnancy is after all, 100% the woman’s choice.