A louder voice in fighting abortion bans: Men in red states-WaPo gift article

[irisblue]

source-https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/09/03/abortion-bans-pregnancy-miscarriage-men/

https://wapo.st/3zbuwl2

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/09/03/abortion-bans-pregnancy-miscarriage-men/


Subtitle-More men are speaking out in defense of reproductive rights because of harrowing experiences that wives or partners have suffered when a


snip-"Thomas Stovall grew up in a strict Baptist family in Mississippi and always believed that anyone involved with abortion was destined for hell.

But his lifelong conviction crumbled when his wife, Chelsea, was 20 weeks pregnant with their third child. Tests showed a severely malformed and underdeveloped fetus, one that was sure to be stillborn if carried to term. There was other devastating news, too. Continuing with the pregnancy could threaten Chelsea’s health and future fertility, doctors warned."


snip-"Two years after the Supreme Court toppled federal protections for the procedure, growing numbers of men in red states are speaking out in defense of reproductive rights because of the harrowing experiences they’ve seen wives or partners go through when pregnancies went tragically awry, endangering their health or ability to bear children. Some, like Stovall, had been staunch abortion opponents; others concede they’d given the issue little thought until it hit close to home."

snip-"The results of the latest Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that 1 in 5 men called abortion a top voting issue for them this year. While it resonates more among Democratic men, with 34 percent identifying it as one of their most important issues, 15 percent of both independent and Republican men also say it is one of the single most important issues in their vote — adding to the GOP’s challenge ahead of November’s presidential election."


much more there.

[biophile]

1. It might be important to them

But that doesn’t mean they are advocates for reproductive rights. To some (and I don’t know what percentage that might be), it’s important for control of women - at all costs. Now that they got Roe overturned, they damn sure want to keep it that way.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. A Republican will say,

“That will never happen to me so I don’t care”

A Democrat will say,

“That shouldn’t happen to anyone and I *do* care.”

This old saying applies in so many instances. GOPers don’t care about or fully understand the ramifications of an important issue until it happens to THEM.

[irisblue]

3. Yep.

[CrispyQ]

4. Soon we'll see lawsuits by women & their families

for the additional medical debt forced on them by the state, for refusing to let hospitals & doctors treat them before their condition became critical. I only wish there was a way to access the private funds of the misogynists who vote for these inhumane laws.

[Lonestarblue]

5. I'm glad they've finally come around, but it's only because their wives suffered.

Perhaps we need more public information about pregnancy and its many potential complications. Estimates are that about 20% of confirmed pregnancies end in miscarriages. Since miscarriages also occur before women know they’re pregnant, up to 40% of pregnancies may end with miscarriage.

In addition to the miscarriages are the life-threatening complications pregnant women may suffer. Here’s an excerpt from a ProPublica article.

“Leah Bahrencu’s kidneys and liver shut down.

Samantha Blackwell spent a month in a coma.

Cindel Pena suffered heart failure.

Heather Lavender lost her uterus.

Rebecca Derohanian bled into her brain.

Every year in the U.S., nearly 4 million women give birth, the vast majority without anything going amiss for themselves or their babies. But more than 135 expectant and new mothers a day — or more than 50,000 a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — endure dangerous and even life-threatening complications that often leave them wounded, weakened, traumatized, financially devastated, unable to bear more children or searching in vain for answers about what went wrong.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/severe-complications-for-women-during-childbirth-are-skyrocketing-and-could-often-be-prevented

There’s a reason the US has the highest maternal death rate among developed nations, and that reason is mostly Republican politics. Republicans pretend that every pregnancy is perfectly normal and that women just want to use abortion for birth control. Their willful ignorance is costing lives, not protecting them.

[Attilatheblond]

6. Minor correction: They only came around when they got better education on the issue, the hard way.

No accident that men have basically been kept in the dark about the list of risks in a pregnancy. TPTB, the ones who want forced birth, also want the general population to be ignorant of the many facets of pregnancies gone wrong. There is method to their methods. Let's remember, a lot of the woman who have had to face the issues of not being allowed to get the complete care they needed, were also once on the side that wants to ban abortion, until conditions arose that made medically necessary abortion happened to them.

Knowledge is important, and we feel for those who got educated on the problems that arise thru such difficult experiences. We feel for the women and the men, and are most grateful when they step out and share their personal horror stories of care denied.

I don't blame some men for coming late to this issue. They have been culturally conditioned to let the women deal with it, and that included keeping them in the dark about how the body works and what all can go dreadfully wrong. I am just grateful these men are stepping up, voicing their very private experiences, and working to get others to wake up and see just how multi-faceted medical care for women needs to be.