On Abortion – "The Opinions of Men Do Not Count - Or Do They?" comments of Mark Crutcher

Few write with clarity and precision as well as Mark Crutcher, Founder and President of Life Dynamics. Here, from his book, "On Message", Mr. Crutcher addresses the oft-heard comment leveled against Pro-Life males - “This is a women’s issue. Men have no say in whether women have the right to get an abortion”. Mr. Crutcher exposes the false logic of the remark and does so with his characteristic reason and logic.

We are supposed to be beyond the point where people are excluded from decision making based on gender. Also, to say that because of their gender men have no right to be involved is not only sexist, but hypocritical. The pro-choice crowd never tells men who are pro-abortion to stay out. For example, they don’t tell the [Barack Obamas,] Bill Clintons or John Kerrys of the world to mind their own business. In fact, they invite them to be speakers at their conventions. They have never said that the 1973 Supreme Court had no right to be involved in the Roe v. Wade decision in spite of the fact that every single member of that court was male.

They don’t appear to have a problem with the fact that the overwhelming majority of abortionists in America are men. They never say anything about the male “escorts” outside the abortion mills. They never even say anything about sexually irresponsible men who coerce, threaten, or force women into abortions. Of course, it is somewhat understandable that they wouldn’t have a problem with this last group since that’s the backbone of the American abortion industry.

It is pretty clear that the pro-choice movement’s message is that there are three groups of acceptable men: those who put women in crisis pregnancy situations, those who build political careers off women in crisis pregnancy situations, and those who make money off women in crisis pregnancy situations. The “bad men” are the ones who think women deserve better than abortion.

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People who think men have no right to be involved in the abortion issue should be careful what they ask for. After all, polls consistently find that women oppose abortion at a higher rate than men. Women are also more opposed to government funding of abortion, more active in the pro-life movement, and more likely to favor banning abortion outright. Obviously, if the pro-aborts were to exclude men from the issue, their support would plummet.

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If the argument is that men shouldn’t be allowed to participate simply because they can’t get pregnant, what about women who can’t get pregnant? Should only fertile women of childbearing age … be allowed to have an opinion about abortion? What about all these older post-menopausal women we see on television shrieking about the right to abortion? Since they can’t get pregnant should they be excluded? Or how about lesbians who have no intention of ever getting pregnant, are they told to sit down and keep their mouths shut? Or let’s say some pro-abortion activist develops ovarian cancer and requires a hysterectomy. Once she can no longer get pregnant, does she get thrown out of the movement?

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If we establish a principle that men have no right to be involved in the abortion issue, what issues are we going to say women have no right to be involved in? The reality is, this whole argument is a fraud. We don’t shut people out of issues just because they are not directly affected by them. We don’t say white people can’t participate in efforts to rid our country of racism, simply because they aren’t its victims. We don’t say only Jews can speak out about the Nazi holocaust. We don’t say that since only men play professional football, women sports reporters are not allowed to cover the NFL. We don’t tell young people they have no business trying to stop the abuse of the elderly in nursing homes. We don’t say that only children can speak out against child abuse.

It is obnoxious to say that men have no right to speak out against the killing of children. In the first place, men don’t need to be given the right to speak out against the killing of children, they already have a responsibility to do so. Real men don’t just stand around with their hands in their pockets while helpless babies are slaughtered for money. In fact, any man who is frightened into silence and inaction because of his gender wasn’t really much of a man to begin with.

Also, to say that men have no stake in abortion is to ignore the biological reality that every time a woman kills her own child she is also killing a father’s child.¹

(Visit Life Dynamics at www.LifeDynamics.com and Mr. Crutcher's blog at www.markcrutcherblog.com.)
¹Crutcher, Mark. On Message. Life Dynamics Incorporated, 2005, p. 32