Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion

by Gabrielle Stanley Blair

Apparently, the seven-day break and its fake “period” was designed into the Pill as an “attempt to persuade the Pope to accept the new form of contraception as an extension of the natural menstrual cycle.”

This little snippet of medical history is a variation on the maxim I mentioned above: When the choice is between maximizing men’s pleasure or minimizing women’s pain, society will predictably choose men. When it comes to birth control, and really, life in general, we favor preserving men’s convenience, peace of mind, and pleasure over preventing or relieving women’s suffering.

If someone tells you to do an irresponsible thing, and you choose to do that irresponsible thing, that’s on you.

Asking men to take some responsibility is not the same as allowing women to take no responsibility. Bringing up the topic of men or their responsibilities is not actually a comment on women at all.

Do you think people should cover their mouth and nose when they sneeze so they don’t spray germs everywhere, but you don’t think you need to worry about where your sperm ends up?

When her mind is programmed to give, she struggles to say “no.” When his mind is programmed to take, he struggles to accept “no.”

And it’s not just that pregnancy and childbirth are more dangerous than other work, it’s that 86 percent of women do this dangerous work—and most do it more than once.

There is nothing similarly dangerous that we assume 86 percent of men will be willing to do. This fact should really make us rethink our societal perceptions of risk and danger.

One recurring argument leveled by people who are antiabortion is that pregnancy is the punishment for a woman who has sex for fun instead of for reproduction. The concern is that if she’s impregnated and then has an abortion, she’s “getting off scot-free.”

Casual suggestions that women need to become mothers, that women who don’t want to be pregnant just need to deal with having a baby, that lifelong parenting responsibilities are an appropriate “consequence” or “punishment” for a women who had sex are actually bonkers.

People ask: Instead of getting an abortion, have you considered adoption? As if these are two comparable options.