As the convoluted, divided, and often counterintuitive results from polling public opinion demonstrate, the abortion issue is complicated. It demands we consider the emotional and logical perspective of multiple parties involved — the women whose bodies will gestate a human being for nine months, the baby in question, and a society that considers the preservation and dignity of life as its core principle.
Men are certainly entitled to an opinion on abortion. But the absolute worst male opinion on abortion is the one articulated recently by Kaivan Shroff, an alum of the Hillary Clinton campaign. He proudly writes, “Men like me benefit from safe abortion access.”
“Since I’ve spent 10 of the past 11 years as a student, most of the women I’ve had sex with were also students, also progressive, and also not at a point in their lives where they were looking or ready to have children,” Shroff writes. “I try to share responsibility for birth control and if a woman tells me she’s on it, I also trust that. If she still got pregnant, however, though entirely her decision, I assume we would both want the same thing: an abortion.”
Although Shroff says he “often” relies on women to “protect” him from fathering a child, he concedes that he and a Tinder date who claimed to be allergic to latex “didn’t use the best judgment,” presumably having unprotected sex and then relying on her taking Plan B. The security of unfettered abortion access, Shroff writes, “has informed my approach to sexual exploration and relationships.” He then laments that, all too often, “male engagement with the pro-choice movement has been articulated solely through the lens of female empowerment.”
That last line really gives the game of third-wave feminism away. Rather than hold men to higher standards of conduct, third-wave feminism rebranded the objectification and degradation of women as a form of empowerment. Pornography and prostitution transformed the commodification of women’s bodies and beauty into “work,” akin to becoming a doctor or a lawyer.
Abortion became not a method for men to evade responsibility for their actions but rather for women to clean up their partners’ messes.
In this line of argumentation, the serious question at the heart of all abortion debates — when exactly does life begin, and what is the duty of the state to protect the rights of the parties involved? — goes entirely unanswered or even explored. It is inconvenient to look at the big picture when one is busy looking for the next partner for unprotected sex.
This isn’t even an argument about abortion, but about personal responsibility. Under the Affordable Care Act, the overwhelming majority of employers fully fund a range of birth control options, including IUDs with near-zero failure rates. The uninsured still have access to contraception under the federally funded Title X program. There are even nonlatex condoms. If Shroff really wants to be as honest as he claims to be, he could just admit he didn’t want to use one. (And just remember, gentlemen, if she’s not making you use one, she’s probably not making other guys either, an unsavory fact given a precipitous rise in increasingly antibiotic-resistant STDs.)
Third-wave feminism has also demanded that we rebrand promiscuity as “sex-positivity.” Actual female empowerment would let a woman call it what it is: If a man is literally basing his sexual decisions on the hope that he can force his partner to have an abortion, he’s probably a slut.
