Abortion as Care: A call for male allyship
MenEngage Alliance supports feminist and women's rights movements in their campaigns to secure access to safe abortion care. We urge men to join these calls, so that together we can help to create a world where reproductive choices are respected and protected. Abortion is care, and it's a matter that concerns us all.
International Safe Abortion Day 2023 #Sept28 #SafeAbortionDay
Access to safe abortion care speaks to the bodily autonomy and integrity of people who can become pregnant. It concerns each and everyone of us. MenEngage Alliance joins the 28th September Campaign’s Unstoppable Movement for access to safe and legal abortion, everywhere and right now.
International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September is a global feminist call for access to safe and legal abortion. This year’s theme is ‘Unstoppable Movement: Movement building, solidarity, and justice for the right to safe abortion’. It calls upon those who support women’s rights and gender justice to work in abortion solidarity for safe, legal abortion everywhere, for anyone who needs it. This year’s campaign includes a sub-theme focussed on young people’s leadership in abortion justice.
Someone you love has probably needed an abortion at some point
As Brazilian organization Catarinas points out (in Portuguese), abortion is so common that you are likely to have a close friend or relative who has had one. Because of the criminalization and stigma of abortion care around the world, many people are unaware that their loved ones have needed an abortion.
The stigma and secrecy around abortion, particularly in places where it is criminalized, makes it invisible even when it happens close to us. Despite the universal need for safe, legal abortion care, it remains illegal and unsafe in most countries, and stigmatized everywhere.
We believe that male allies must speak up for the right to abortion care in supportive, respectful, healthy, and positive ways. By doing so, men can be part of the unstoppable movement led by feminists to break the stigma surrounding abortion care, to affect policy change, and to act as allies for bodily autonomy of women and all who can become pregnant.
Access to safe abortion without fear or stigma is key for sexual and reproductive rights for all individuals everywhere. It is essential for human rights and the elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination.
Add your voice
You can add your voice to the campaign by:
- Supporting the calls to action of the 28 September campaign
- Use the 28 September campaign’s creative materials to elevant key messages on social and digital media
- If you are a male ally, break the stigma and taboo surrounding abortion by speaking up in your networks and communities.
- If you are unsure on ways to talk about abortion, check the video messages from MenEngage members last 28 September, read this guide on how to talk about abortion through rights-based messaging by International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and this abortion factsheet, including do-s and dont-s
- We call on MenEngage Alliance members to elevate this issue today and all year round as part of your work to transform patriarchal masculinities and work with men and boys for gender justice.