In Texas in 2011 there were 62 abortion providers; 46 of those were clinics. On October 3rd there were only 8 abortion clinics following the second round of HB2. When the Supreme Court put a hold on HB2 on October 14th, some abortion clinics re-opened. Currently there are 21 abortion clinics in the state of Texas. Some of these are likely to close down after appeals are filed and the court gives its final ruling in January (according to fundtexaswomen.org ). This makes getting an abortion very inconvenient for a lot of people as some people are far away from the closest abortion clinic.
HB2 is a law regulating abortion clinics the same way hospitals are regulated. I suspect that this was put in place not out of safety, as regulatory laws are supposed to be, but because the lawmakers were pro-life.
Rightfully, there has been a huge backlash to this. In this article I will focus on how a lot of pro-choice activists have been treating this as a women's issue and how doing so excludes male voters and thus reduces support for their cause.
As an example, the source randomly selected for the statistics on abortion clinics at the top of this page is not only named 'fundtexaswomen.org,' it has a pink background. To their credit, in August 2014 they changed the name of their organization from 'Fund Texas Women' to 'Fund Texas Choice,' but their website explains that their reason for doing so is to not exclude transgendered men, and it mentions nothing about wanting to include cisgendered men in the discussion.
It is often assumed that men oppose abortion in larger numbers than women but according to spectator.org, studies show that gender does not correlate with being pro-choice or pro life. In fact, more men than women oppose abortion limits, and fewer men than women support them (according to an article by The Guardian).
Given this information, one could still understandably assume that even though an equal number of men and women are pro-choice, more of those women actually want to get involved than the men who are pro-choice. Surprisingly, a google image search of 'abortion protest texas' doesn't support this theory. In the foreground you see mostly women, but if you look at the background of the photos there are almost as many (if not as many) men as there are women.
The fact of the matter is that men are also affected by these laws. For every pregnancy, there is a father as well as a mother, and therefore the decision to get an abortion affects both parties. Given this and the fact that men seem to want get involved in the movement, it seems inappropriate for pro-choice rhetoric to be targeted at women and exclude men. It is also highly probable that this costs them a lot of support from men -- support that they could really use.
And more support could go a long way. In the last gubernatorial election, Wendy Davis, whose keystone issue was abortion, lost in a landslide (39%-59% according to CNN ) to Greg Abbott. She did particularly poorly among men (32%-66%). Compare this with Sarah Palin, for whom the nydailynews reports that 57 percent of men, and only 43 percent of women consider her qualified to be president.
Wendy Davis put in so much work in her campaign trying to win over female voters but if she were to have any hope of winning, she would need to have done better among male voters. Since her main issue was abortion, including more males in that conversation of abortion would have increased her votes.
In conclusion, the conversation of abortion has been held as if it is a matter that only concerns women, but men also care about these issues. If pro-choice activists made more of an effort to have male support, they would be able to be more effective.
As an example, the source randomly selected for the statistics on abortion clinics at the top of this page is not only named 'fundtexaswomen.org,' it has a pink background. To their credit, in August 2014 they changed the name of their organization from 'Fund Texas Women' to 'Fund Texas Choice,' but their website explains that their reason for doing so is to not exclude transgendered men, and it mentions nothing about wanting to include cisgendered men in the discussion.
It is often assumed that men oppose abortion in larger numbers than women but according to spectator.org, studies show that gender does not correlate with being pro-choice or pro life. In fact, more men than women oppose abortion limits, and fewer men than women support them (according to an article by The Guardian).
Given this information, one could still understandably assume that even though an equal number of men and women are pro-choice, more of those women actually want to get involved than the men who are pro-choice. Surprisingly, a google image search of 'abortion protest texas' doesn't support this theory. In the foreground you see mostly women, but if you look at the background of the photos there are almost as many (if not as many) men as there are women.
The fact of the matter is that men are also affected by these laws. For every pregnancy, there is a father as well as a mother, and therefore the decision to get an abortion affects both parties. Given this and the fact that men seem to want get involved in the movement, it seems inappropriate for pro-choice rhetoric to be targeted at women and exclude men. It is also highly probable that this costs them a lot of support from men -- support that they could really use.
And more support could go a long way. In the last gubernatorial election, Wendy Davis, whose keystone issue was abortion, lost in a landslide (39%-59% according to CNN ) to Greg Abbott. She did particularly poorly among men (32%-66%). Compare this with Sarah Palin, for whom the nydailynews reports that 57 percent of men, and only 43 percent of women consider her qualified to be president.
Wendy Davis put in so much work in her campaign trying to win over female voters but if she were to have any hope of winning, she would need to have done better among male voters. Since her main issue was abortion, including more males in that conversation of abortion would have increased her votes.
In conclusion, the conversation of abortion has been held as if it is a matter that only concerns women, but men also care about these issues. If pro-choice activists made more of an effort to have male support, they would be able to be more effective.
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