Men’s Responsibility in the Contraception Fight

If you’re like me, you’re a man (or at least, a man-boy) and it’s not some major plot twist for me to plainly state that men enjoy sex. Women are generally the ones responsible for keeping all our love-making fun and pregnancy-free, taking contraceptives like the ubiquitous birth control pill to prevent unwanted pregnancy. In short, women have the chore, and men reap the reward.

The pill “has made our sex lives a lot simpler, and let’s admit it, a hell of a lot more enjoyable,” write Glenn W. Smith and James Moore write in their Huffington Post op-ed. So why is it that men who are “involved in 100% of all pregnancies” more involved in the fight for contraception? According to Smith and Moore, it’s high-time for the men of the world to stand up alongside our feminist allies and “accept their responsibility, biologically, morally, and politically, to play a substantial role in the health of their partners.”

“When the Misogynistic Armies of the Right march against women, they are also carrying pitchforks to use on us,” the two men argue. Though family planning is often considered a private conversation, they think that needs to be put aside for the fight and that, “men of character” need to stand up publicly.

The pregnancy argument might not be enough to convince you, so consider that Planned Parenthood also does screening for sexually transmitted infections. If you’re anything like me, you’d probably rather have a baby than an STI, so the defunding of the organization also has an effect on men’s health. “This is not just a question of women’s health care; it’s about the health of every American drawing a breath,” write Smith and Moore.

The full column can be found here.

Here is the first ad from Stand Up Men:

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