men cause 100% of unwanted pregnancies
why don't we encourage them to ejaculate responsibly?
No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, most of us would prefer to live in a world where there are zero unwanted pregnancies. It would mean that all children are born wanted, and therefore loved, and that all parents would be enthusiastic and prepared for parenthood. Given how passionate some people are about reducing or eliminating abortion altogether, it’s baffling that so much of our collective attention is devoted to only intervening with one gender, when including men would reap far better results. It’s almost like patriarchy makes us avoid the basic and effective solutions to the world’s biggest problems!
It’s hard to believe, but almost half of pregnancies worldwide are unintended. The fact that straight people tend to have so many unplanned children, is one of the reasons why some researchers suspect queer couples have happier and healthier kids, a topic we delve into in my fertility podcast Race to 35. Financial stability impacts how well a child develops, but nothing sets you up for success like having a secure attachment that comes from growing up in a loving home.
And while many reproductive rights activists won’t even accept the framing that we should be reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies or abortions, a book urging men to share contraceptive responsibility offers innovative solutions to an issue that seems to have captured far too many of our elected officials’ attention. Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion, is a new book by Gabrielle Blair that asks controversial, yet essential questions. For instance, if men cause 100% of unwanted pregnancies, why aren’t they encouraged to take responsibility for them? I mean practically speaking, the responsibility isn’t even 50/50. While women are only fertile a few days out out of the month, men are fertile 100% of the time.
If men are fifty times more fertile, why does 90% of the $8 billion birth control market only target women?
As I’ve argued before, if politicians really want to commit to their weird bit of making invasive laws to “defend” a collection of cells that didn’t ask them for a single thing, they should be regulating how much men masturbate because sperm is just as alive according to their derpy logic. And besides, if they’re going to rely on the bible instead of facts for all their policy-making, they should at least be accurate. The seed of life starts with male sperm, and yet there are zero laws governing men’s bodies.