What men should be doing to support women's reproductive rights | Opinion
“The Upstream Story” has many titles and versions, but the premise is the same, a parable of babies floating down a river. While one person starts grabbing the infants out of the water, the other person runs upstream. The first person asks, "Where are you going?! We have to save these babies." The other replies, "I'm going to see who's throwing the babies in the river." This story highlights the need to address the root causes of a problem.
The root cause of the abortion controversy is men. Women are not getting pregnant by themselves. Yet the only focus, be it legislative, judicial or societal, rests solely on women. Women make up 51% of the U.S. population but are burdened with 100% of the hardship and condemnation of an unwarranted or life-threatening pregnancy.
Our federal government and every state have a set of laws concerning women's reproductive organs. There are no laws regulating male reproductive organs.
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Abortion is not a "woman's issue." Abortion is part of an all-encompassing societal problem on how women are viewed and are treated differently than men. A female has to worry about how she dresses because she doesn't want to be seen as "asking for it." She has to be vigilant of date rape "needle spiking" and drugs being slipped into her drink or having to ask for an "angel shot with lime" hoping the bartender knows that what she really means is to call the police. We have to teach our daughters how to use a hand code in case they need to signal others that they feel unsafe. These societal "issues" need all individuals, male and female, to start changing the dialogue and attitudes towards women.
As our friend, Jane would say, "Who is teaching boys to be responsible for their own bodies and reproduction?"
Fathers and male role models like coaches and scouting leaders must impress upon young boys that they need to wear a condom, that when a woman says no, she means it and that it is a man's responsibility to prevent their male friends from degrading and attacking women, be it in a bar or on the judicial bench or in the chambers of government.
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Media executives must start balancing their revenue stream from the constant stream of erectile dysfunction advertisements with public service announcements that emphasize listening to your partners.
Heads of pharmaceutical companies must stop dragging their feet and develop effective male birth control medications. CEOs of health insurance companies need to stop covering the cost of pills like Viagra unless those same insurance policies also cover the entire cost of all birth control for both women and men.
Judges and lawyers must stop making plea deals regarding rape or incest. There needs to be firm procedures in place to quickly and without exception facilitate a judicial bypass for abortions for minors.
Men must vehemently condemn (verbally, as well as in votes and in political donations and fundraising) those elected officials who congratulate themselves for making laws against women's bodies. U.S. Senators must stop excusing rape and sexual harassment as "boys will be boys" when confirming male judges and justices. These men become the same judges and justices who uphold discriminatory and dangerous laws against women.
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Regulations on abortion is the only law in the United States that is based on one particular religion which mandates their belief that life begins at conception. To force women to endure horrible repercussions, even their own deaths, because of one specific group's religious edict, is discrimination against the beliefs and practices of other religions. It also blurs the concept of the separation of church and state. A law based on a single religious belief must not dictate any laws that affect more than fifty percent of the American population.
Handmaiden costumes, coat hangers and personal stories are not, nor ever have been effective in changing the male view on abortion. The remedy for this "war on women" will only happen when men pressure other men to support and respect women having control over their own bodies.
Mary Lou Marzian, a Democrat, is the Kentucky House representative for District 34. Honi Marleen Goldman and Maria A. Fernandez, Esq. are community activists who have organized numerous grassroots movements on problems facing this community.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: What men should be doing to support a woman's reproductive rights | Opinion
