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A man holds a sign supporting Roe vs. Wade in front of the US Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC on November 30, 2021.
(Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
Welcoming the Men in Red States Speaking Out for Abortion Rights
More and more men are stepping up and joining Men4Choice, a national organization dedicated to recruiting men in the fight for safe and legal abortion.
Sep 28, 2024
Like it or not, abortion access has always been viewed as a “women’s problem.” Men rarely talked about it, at least not publicly, and it didn’t seem to rank very high on their list of political priorities.
Not anymore.
Since Donald Trump proudly took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade with his anti-choice Supreme Court appointments, men have been forced to pay more attention — particularly in red states with the most restrictive abortion policies.
As the costs of extreme abortion bans have mounted, men have seen their partners forced to delay or forgo essential medical care — whether bleeding out in emergency room parking lots while suffering a miscarriage or taking on the huge expense of traveling between states. In extreme cases, they’ve seen their partners die.
Husbands with wives who’ve been denied care when a pregnancy goes wrong are now waking up and speaking out.
As a recent Washington Post article highlighted, one such couple had to drive 400 miles from their home in Arkansas to reach an Illinois clinic willing to end a pregnancy with a malformed fetus that would be stillborn if carried to term. The ordeal was enough to convert the husband from abortion opponent to pro-choice advocate working to get an abortion measure on the state ballot.
In states that ban abortion, virtually all clinics have closed since the Dobbs decision obliterated a woman’s right to control her own body. Facilities in bordering states have meanwhile been inundated with pleas from desperate couples seeking help.
More and more men are stepping up and joining Men4Choice, a national organization dedicated to recruiting men in the fight for safe and legal abortion. The group hosts community education events with young pro-choice men and organizes Get Out the Vote events mobilizing hundreds of male allies for contacting voters.
“It’s not just about abortion. It’s about freedom. It’s about power,” founder Oren Jacobson told the Post. A prominent ally is second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who helps the group with outreach to broaden their membership.
According to data reported in the New York Times, more than 171,000 patients traveled for an abortion in 2023. That’s double the number who crossed state lines for an abortion in 2019, accounting for nearly a fifth of recorded abortions. It’s a grim reminder of the upheaval in access since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. 2024 data is of course not complete, but there’s no evidence that cross border trips for the procedure have slowed.
Then there are the uncounted casualties of these draconian bans: women unable to travel out of state for an abortion even though they desperately want or need the procedure. That includes women working at low wage jobs who can’t afford to take time off, cover child care costs while they’re away, and pay for gasoline, food, and lodging for the trip.
Who knows how far this could go? Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) has already signaled his support for prosecuting women who cross state lines for abortions. And in some states, zealots are trying to revive the 1873 Comstock Act to make birth control pills illegal.
There’s no reason to think they’ll stop there. Why not limit men’s choices too? Outlaw vasectomies and take condoms off the drug store shelves. Don’t laugh — it could happen.
Bottom line: men, particularly in restrictive red states, are waking up and speaking out. It’s a good bet their numbers will grow, and access to abortion will at last no longer be seen as just a woman’s problem. Because it isn’t.
An Unconstitutional Rampage
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Martha Burk
Martha Burk is a political psychologist, women's issues expert, and director of the Corporate Accountability Project for the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO) and the author of the "Your Voice, Your Vote" (2020). Follow Martha on Twitter @MarthaBurk.
Like it or not, abortion access has always been viewed as a “women’s problem.” Men rarely talked about it, at least not publicly, and it didn’t seem to rank very high on their list of political priorities.
Not anymore.
Since Donald Trump proudly took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade with his anti-choice Supreme Court appointments, men have been forced to pay more attention — particularly in red states with the most restrictive abortion policies.
As the costs of extreme abortion bans have mounted, men have seen their partners forced to delay or forgo essential medical care — whether bleeding out in emergency room parking lots while suffering a miscarriage or taking on the huge expense of traveling between states. In extreme cases, they’ve seen their partners die.
Husbands with wives who’ve been denied care when a pregnancy goes wrong are now waking up and speaking out.
As a recent Washington Post article highlighted, one such couple had to drive 400 miles from their home in Arkansas to reach an Illinois clinic willing to end a pregnancy with a malformed fetus that would be stillborn if carried to term. The ordeal was enough to convert the husband from abortion opponent to pro-choice advocate working to get an abortion measure on the state ballot.
In states that ban abortion, virtually all clinics have closed since the Dobbs decision obliterated a woman’s right to control her own body. Facilities in bordering states have meanwhile been inundated with pleas from desperate couples seeking help.
More and more men are stepping up and joining Men4Choice, a national organization dedicated to recruiting men in the fight for safe and legal abortion. The group hosts community education events with young pro-choice men and organizes Get Out the Vote events mobilizing hundreds of male allies for contacting voters.
“It’s not just about abortion. It’s about freedom. It’s about power,” founder Oren Jacobson told the Post. A prominent ally is second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who helps the group with outreach to broaden their membership.
According to data reported in the New York Times, more than 171,000 patients traveled for an abortion in 2023. That’s double the number who crossed state lines for an abortion in 2019, accounting for nearly a fifth of recorded abortions. It’s a grim reminder of the upheaval in access since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. 2024 data is of course not complete, but there’s no evidence that cross border trips for the procedure have slowed.
Then there are the uncounted casualties of these draconian bans: women unable to travel out of state for an abortion even though they desperately want or need the procedure. That includes women working at low wage jobs who can’t afford to take time off, cover child care costs while they’re away, and pay for gasoline, food, and lodging for the trip.
Who knows how far this could go? Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) has already signaled his support for prosecuting women who cross state lines for abortions. And in some states, zealots are trying to revive the 1873 Comstock Act to make birth control pills illegal.
There’s no reason to think they’ll stop there. Why not limit men’s choices too? Outlaw vasectomies and take condoms off the drug store shelves. Don’t laugh — it could happen.
Bottom line: men, particularly in restrictive red states, are waking up and speaking out. It’s a good bet their numbers will grow, and access to abortion will at last no longer be seen as just a woman’s problem. Because it isn’t.
Martha Burk
Martha Burk is a political psychologist, women's issues expert, and director of the Corporate Accountability Project for the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO) and the author of the "Your Voice, Your Vote" (2020). Follow Martha on Twitter @MarthaBurk.
Like it or not, abortion access has always been viewed as a “women’s problem.” Men rarely talked about it, at least not publicly, and it didn’t seem to rank very high on their list of political priorities.
Not anymore.
Since Donald Trump proudly took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade with his anti-choice Supreme Court appointments, men have been forced to pay more attention — particularly in red states with the most restrictive abortion policies.
As the costs of extreme abortion bans have mounted, men have seen their partners forced to delay or forgo essential medical care — whether bleeding out in emergency room parking lots while suffering a miscarriage or taking on the huge expense of traveling between states. In extreme cases, they’ve seen their partners die.
Husbands with wives who’ve been denied care when a pregnancy goes wrong are now waking up and speaking out.
As a recent Washington Post article highlighted, one such couple had to drive 400 miles from their home in Arkansas to reach an Illinois clinic willing to end a pregnancy with a malformed fetus that would be stillborn if carried to term. The ordeal was enough to convert the husband from abortion opponent to pro-choice advocate working to get an abortion measure on the state ballot.
In states that ban abortion, virtually all clinics have closed since the Dobbs decision obliterated a woman’s right to control her own body. Facilities in bordering states have meanwhile been inundated with pleas from desperate couples seeking help.
More and more men are stepping up and joining Men4Choice, a national organization dedicated to recruiting men in the fight for safe and legal abortion. The group hosts community education events with young pro-choice men and organizes Get Out the Vote events mobilizing hundreds of male allies for contacting voters.
“It’s not just about abortion. It’s about freedom. It’s about power,” founder Oren Jacobson told the Post. A prominent ally is second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who helps the group with outreach to broaden their membership.
According to data reported in the New York Times, more than 171,000 patients traveled for an abortion in 2023. That’s double the number who crossed state lines for an abortion in 2019, accounting for nearly a fifth of recorded abortions. It’s a grim reminder of the upheaval in access since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. 2024 data is of course not complete, but there’s no evidence that cross border trips for the procedure have slowed.
Then there are the uncounted casualties of these draconian bans: women unable to travel out of state for an abortion even though they desperately want or need the procedure. That includes women working at low wage jobs who can’t afford to take time off, cover child care costs while they’re away, and pay for gasoline, food, and lodging for the trip.
Who knows how far this could go? Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) has already signaled his support for prosecuting women who cross state lines for abortions. And in some states, zealots are trying to revive the 1873 Comstock Act to make birth control pills illegal.
There’s no reason to think they’ll stop there. Why not limit men’s choices too? Outlaw vasectomies and take condoms off the drug store shelves. Don’t laugh — it could happen.
Bottom line: men, particularly in restrictive red states, are waking up and speaking out. It’s a good bet their numbers will grow, and access to abortion will at last no longer be seen as just a woman’s problem. Because it isn’t.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
LATEST NEWS
Senate GOP Fuels Privatization Fears by Confirming 'Quack Grifter' Dr. Oz
The new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator joins "a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health," said one critic.
Apr 03, 2025
Echoing a party-line vote by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee last week, the chamber's Republicans on Thursday confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, former televison host Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Since Trump nominated Oz—who previously ran as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania—a wide range of critics have argued that the celebrity cardiothoracic surgeon "is profoundly unqualified to lead any part of our healthcare system, let alone an agency as important as CMS," in the words of Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
After Thursday's 53-45 vote to confirm Oz, Weissman declared that "Republicans in the Senate continued to just be a rubber stamp for a dangerous agenda that threatens to turn back the clock on healthcare in America."
Weissman warned that "in addition to having significant conflicts of interest, Oz is now poised to help enact the Trump administration's dangerous agenda, which seeks to strip crucial healthcare services through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act from hundreds of millions of Americans and to use that money to give tax breaks to billionaires."
"As he showed in his confirmation hearing, Oz will also seek to further privatize Medicare, increasing the risk that seniors will receive inferior care and further threatening the long-term health of the Medicare program. We already know that privatized Medicare costs taxpayers nearly $100 billion annually in excess costs," he continued, referring to Medicare Advantage plans.
CMS is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who, like Oz, came under fire for his record of dubious claims during the confirmation process. Weissman said that "Dr. Oz is joining a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health. This is yet another dark day for healthcare in America under Trump."
In the middle of Trump's tariff disaster, the Senate is voting to confirm quack grifter Dr. Oz to lead the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services.
[image or embed]
— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) April 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Oz's confirmation came a day after Trump announced globally disruptive tariffs and Senate Republicans unveiled a budget plan that would give the wealthy trillions of dollars in tax cuts at the expense of federal food assistance and healthcare programs.
"While Dr. Oz would rather play coy, this is no hypothetical. Harmful cuts to Medicaid or Medicare are unavoidable in the Trump-Republican budget plan that prioritizes another giant tax break for the president's billionaire and corporate donors," Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US, said ahead of the vote.
"None of Dr. Oz's 'miracle' cures that he's peddled over the years will help seniors when their fundamental health security is ripped away to make the rich richer," Carrk continued. "And while privatizing Medicare may enrich Dr. Oz's family and big insurance friends, it will cost taxpayers far more and leave millions of patients vulnerable to denials of care and higher out-of-pocket costs."
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), was similarly critical, saying after the vote that "at a time when our population is growing older and the need for access to home care, nursing homes, affordable prescription drugs, and quality medical care has never been greater, Americans deserve better than a snake oil salesman leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."
"Dr. Mehmet Oz has been shilling pseudoscience to line his own pockets. He can't be trusted to defend Medicare and Medicaid from billionaires who want to dismantle and privatize the foundation of affordable healthcare in this country," the union leader added. "AFSCME members—including nurses, home care and childcare providers, social workers and more—will be watching and fighting back against any effort to weaken Medicare and Medicaid. The 147 million seniors, children, Americans with disabilities, and low-income workers who rely on these programs for affordable access to healthcare deserve nothing less."
Israel Bombs More Gaza Schools, Killing Dozens, Including Many Women and Children
"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," said one observer.
Apr 03, 2025
Israeli airstrikes targeted at least three more school shelters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing dozens of Palestinians and wounding scores of others on a day when local officials said that more than 100 people were slain by occupation forces.
Gaza's Government Media Office said that at least 29 people—including 14 children and five women—were killed and over 100 others were wounded when at least four missiles struck the Dar al-Arqam school complex in the Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, where hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering after being forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled coastal enclave by Israel's 535-day assault.
Al Jazeera reported that "when terrified men, women, and children fled from one school building to another, the bombs followed them," and "when bystanders rushed to help, they too became victims."
Warning: Video contains graphic images of death.
A first responder from the Palestine Red Crescent Society—which is reeling from this week's discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of eight of its members, some of whom had allegedly been bound and executed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops—told Al Jazeera that "we were absolutely shocked by the scale of this massacre," whose victims were "mostly women and children."
An official from Gaza's Civil Defense, five of whose members were also found in the mass grave on Sunday, said: "What's going on here is a wake-up call to the entire world. This war and these massacres against women and children must stop immediately. The children are being killed in cold blood here in Gaza. Our teams cannot perform their duties properly.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi said that the death toll was likely to rise, as some survivors were critically injured.
Dozens of victims were reportedly trapped beneath rubble of Thursday's airstrikes, but they could not cbe rescued due to a lack of equipment.
The IDF claimed that "key Hamas terrorists" were targeted in a strike on what it called a "command center." Israeli officials routinely claim—often with little or no evidence—that Palestinian civilians it kills are members of Hamas or other militant resistance groups.
Israel also bombed the nearby al-Sabah school, killing four people, as well as the Fahd School in Gaza City, with three reported fatalities.
Some of the deadliest bombings in the war have been carried out against refugees sheltering in schools, many of them run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—at least 280 of whose staff members have been killed by Israeli forces during the war.
The United Nations Children's Fund has called Gaza "the world's most dangerous place to be a child." Last year, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for the first time added Israel to his so-called "List of Shame" of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts. More than 17,500 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Thursday's school bombings sparked worldwide outrage and calls to hold Israel accountable.
"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," Australian journalist, activist, and progressive politician Sophie McNeill wrote on social media. "We must sanction Israel now!"
There were other IDF massacres on Thursday, with local officials reporting that more than 100 people were killed in Israeli attacks since dawn. Al-Wahidi said more than 30 people were killed in strikes on homes in Gaza City's Shejaya neighborhood, citing records at al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza.
Al Jazeera reported that al-Ahli's emergency room "is overwhelmed with casualties and, as is so often the case over the past 18 months, the victims are Gaza's youngest."
Thursday's intensified airstrikes came as Israeli forces pushed into the ruins of the southern city of Rafah. Local and international media reported that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families fled from the area, which Israel said it will seize as part of a new "security zone."
Human rights defenders around the world condemned U.S.-backed killing and mass displacement, with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—whose bid to block some sAmerican arms sales to Israel was rejected by the Senate on Thursday—saying: "There is a name and a term for forcibly expelling people from where they live. It is called ethnic cleansing. It is illegal. It is a war crime."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which last year issued arrest warrants for the pair over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
According to Gaza officials, Israeli forces have killed or wounded at least 175,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including upward of 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Almost everyone in Gaza has been forcibly displaced at least once, and the "complete siege" imposed by Israel has fueled widespread and sometimes deadly starvation and disease.
Teasing Another Senate Run, Independent Dan Osborn Says 'We Could Replace a Billionaire With a Mechanic'
"Working-class candidate v. billionaire political race. I'm here for it," wrote one longtime progressive strategist.
Apr 03, 2025
Dan Osborn, an Independent U.S. Senate candidate who struck a chord with working-class voters in Nebraska and came within striking distance of unseating his Republican opponent last year, announced Thursday that he's considering another run, this time challenging GOP Sen. Pete GOP Ricketts, who is up for election in 2026.
"We could replace a billionaire with a mechanic," Osborn wrote in a thread on X on Thursday. "I'll run against Pete Ricketts—if the support is there." Osborn said that he's launching an exploratory committee and would run as Independent, as he did in 2024.
Ricketts has served as a senator since 2023, and prior to that was the governor of Nebraska from 2015-2023. By one estimate, Ricketts has a net worth of over $165 million—though the wealth of his father, brokerage founder Joe Ricketts, and family is estimated to be worth $4.1 billion, according to Forbes.
A mechanic and unionist who helped lead a strike against Kellogg's cereal company, Osborn lost to Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) by less than 7 points in November 2024 in what became an unexpectedly close race.
Although he didn't win, he overperformed the national Democratic ticket by a higher percentage than other candidates running against Republicans in competitive Senate races, according to The Nation.
"Billionaires have bought up the country and are carving it up day by day," said Osborn Thursday. "The economy they've built is good for them, bad for us. Good for huge multinationals and multibillionaires. Bad for workers. Bad for small businesses, bad for family farmers. Bad for anyone who wants Social Security to survive. Bad for your PAYCHECK."
Osborn cast the potential race as between "someone who's spent his life working for a living and will never take an order from a corporation or a party boss" and "someone who's never worked a day in his life and is entirely beholden to corporations and party."
"We could take on this illness, the billionaire class, directly," he said.
Osborn, who campaigned on issues like Right to Repair and lowering taxes on overtime payments, earned praise from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who told The Nation in late November that Osborn's bid should be viewed as a "model for the future."
Osborn "took on both political parties. He took on the corporate world. He ran as a strong trade unionist. Without party support, getting heavily outspent, he got through to working-class people all over Nebraska. It was an extraordinary campaign," Sanders said.
In reaction to the news that Osborn is exploring a second run, a former Sanders campaign manager and longtime progressive Democratic strategist Faiz Shakir, wrote: "working-class candidate v. billionaire political race. I'm here for it."
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