Reproductive Freedom: Why It Matters to Young Men and Boys
When we think of reproductive freedom, we often focus on its impact on women. But make no mistake: it’s just as important for young men and boys. The Dobbs decision didn’t just dictate what happens to women’s bodies—it delivered a message to all of us, men included, about who controls our personal decisions.
Imagine a world where someone else decides your future. Where your choices about your body, your life, and your family are taken out of your hands. That world exists now. Reproductive freedom is about more than just the right to an abortion. It’s about the right for everyone—women, men, boys, and girls—to make their own decisions about their bodies and their futures.
What does this mean for you as a young man?
Freedom to Plan Your Future: Whether or not to become a parent is one of the most important decisions you will make in your life. Laws that restrict reproductive choices affect your ability to plan when—or if—you want to have children.
Equality in Relationships: Healthy relationships are built on mutual respect and shared decision-making. If the government can control one partner's body, it shifts the balance of power and strips away that shared responsibility. In matters of reproductive health, it’s essential that both partners have a voice.
Your Rights, Your Body: The government’s power to restrict reproductive freedom doesn’t stop with abortion. Once the precedent is set that the state can control what happens to a woman's body, what's stopping it from controlling what happens to yours? Reproductive rights are human rights, and when they’re taken away from one group, everyone’s freedom is at risk.
Responsibility and Accountability: Reproductive freedom isn't just about avoiding unintended consequences—it’s about ensuring you can live the life you choose. Being forced into parenthood, or the inability to choose when to start a family, impacts your finances, your education, and your emotional well-being.
The Dobbs decision was about control, not protection. It affects you and your future. The fight for reproductive freedom is about ensuring that you—and everyone else—can make decisions about your body and your life without interference from those in power.
Reproductive freedom is your freedom too. Stand with those fighting for it, because your choices and your future matter just as much as anyone else's.
