Keep Ya Head Up: We All Love Someone Who Will Need An Abortion One Day.
“And since a man can’t make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one” — Keep Ya Head Up by Tupac.
We all love someone who will need an abortion one day. We all love someone who has had an abortion. Right now men there are people who rightfully feel betrayed by our silence since Roe was overturned. Reproductive rights are for everyone who has reproductive organs, not just for women and people who can become pregnant. Privacy rights extend to all Americans, not just women and people who can become pregnant. Yet, it is women who are the most visible in the battle for reproductive justice. Men, we must do better.
During the pandemic, I heard from many black men about their valid fears and tangible concerns about getting the COVID vaccination, because of the Tuskegee experiments. White doctors and scientists intentionally infected black men, without their knowledge or consent, with syphilis. Then these same white doctors withheld the cure for their ailment from them. Many of these men were robbed of their right to reproduce, because of this immoral and deceitful plan to study how syphilis ravages the human body.
Most of what we know about the study of gynecology is because white doctors used black women as if they were lab rats. They showed the same regard to black women as they would show any beast that is routinely found in a laboratory setting. Many women died from these sadists who masqueraded torture as scientific experiments. Black women were rendered sterile due to this unfettered and unpunished barbarism.
Reproductive justice is something that all of us must fight for and we must unite with everyone to not only protect the rights we have but to reacquire our old freedoms. The hallmark of a free society is the ability to determine when and with whom we choose to start a family. Sadly, in many states that freedom no longer exists.
I know some men have used pregnancy and the lack of access to abortion healthcare as a means to control women. Those men are the lowest form of life. Their hatred knows no bounds. Their bitterness spoils the air. Men like them should not be allowed in polite society.
Thankfully, most of us do not have such rank misogynistic views. Many of us just do not know how to get involved in this fight and that is ok because I am going to tell you how: show up.
A large part of activism is just showing up and putting your body out there for everyone to see. You might not know the proper terminology and that is ok, keep your mouth shut and your ears open and learn. Too many of the aforementioned misogynists show up to the pro-abortion rallies with guns on their hips or slung around their shoulders seeking to intimidate women and people who can become pregnant. Sadly, I believe many of these so-called men become aroused by terrorizing and harassing women. Do you know what these cowards fear? People who are unmoved by their bluster and scare tactics.
“I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? (Why? Why?)
I think it’s time to kill for our women (why? Why? Why? Why?)
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies (oh, yeah, baby)” — Keep Ya Head Up by Tupac.
I can’t describe how many times I have been thanked by women who welcome my male body at these events: standing, yelling, marching, chanting, and cheering in solidarity with them. Too many times we send women off to fight the battles that us men have manufactured for them. The fact that we make it more and more difficult to obtain birth control in this country, but allow erectile dysfunction medicine to be handed out like candy on Halloween. The military spends almost one hundred million dollars each year on ED meds. Yes, there are other benefits to ED meds than just erections, just like there are other benefits to birth control meds than controlling becoming pregnant. To put it succinctly: if it is God’s will for a person to become pregnant then a flaccid penis is also God’s will.
The fundamental truth is this: someone you love will need an abortion one day. Someone you love has had an abortion. There is no greater love than showing them that their struggle is your struggle. That is why men must show up in this fight for all of our reproductive rights.
