EDIT: Fellow male advocates, some of you raised excellent counter-arguments and I would be an idiot if I did not learn from feedback. I can see now that in some places my tone was too arrogant and my arguments too shallow. I struckthrough what I wish I could take back and I used bold to further explain myself. Thank you.

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Let me start by proclaiming that I firmly support the right for abortion in almost any circumstances. But I support it for a very different reasons than majority of pro-choices and I am sick and tired by the shitstorm of bad arguments used by otherwise rational and kind people.

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My body, my choice?

Grow up. You don't have an absolute bodily autonomy - nobody does. You have to pay taxes, you cannot drive under influence. Your freedom stops where someone else's freedom begins - obviously, duh!

Bodily autonomy is a noble ideal, but it is never absolutely true on its own. Like other types of freedom, ones bodily autonomy stops where someone else autonomy begins.

There are situations where we don't have bodily autonomy even though we should, and there are situations where we don't have bodily autonomy and it is probably good that we don't. And there are situations everywhere in between. Here are some examples:

  • You think anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers are ridiculous? How about when THEY brandish the My Body My Choice argument?
  • If you are a man, and there is an unplanned pregnancy (or you were raped), you will have no say whatsoever in becoming a father. You will have no bodily autonomy and if you don't pay child support you end up in prison. Heck, you end up in prison if you are in prison and can not pay child support.
  • Don't even make me start on the conscription laws.
  • In most countries you don't even get to decide if you die in dignity.
  • Recreational drugs, mandatory seat belts...
  • Duty to rescue

(Please note, none of these are meant as a direct comparison to a right to abortion. They are examples of various limitations of bodily autonomy. I do not participate in oppression olympics.)

Many of you, fellow male advocates, argued that there is a big difference between refusing a mask and refusing to carry a baby for 9 months. And that is precisely my point. Bodily autonomy is never absolutely true on its own, there are always conditions attached to it and it is not the noble ideal but the unspoken conditions that determine whether you agree or disagree with the application.

It is ok if you don't consider the pro-life argument compelling - me neither. But it is not an empty or frivolous argument that can be dismissed with a four word slogan. Inside that body, there is a potential future human being, maybe even evolved enough to feel pain. I would much rather see people chanting "Life does not begin at conception" or "Parent before fetus". The 'My body, my choice' slogan is a brush too broad to be useful for anything.

My body my choice? More like my body - it's a complex problem.

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Because they hate women?

We keep hearing this argument over and over and over - the real reasons they want to ban abortions is because they want to control women, because they hate women. This poll proves it (spoiler: it does not).

Yet this argument is a huge straw-man. Did you speak to anti-abortionists? Did you hear their arguments? Did you see their ads? The fact is that majority of these people do not hate women.

Yes, many on the conservative side support traditional gender roles, some are sexist assholes, even racists, homophobes etc. But that is not the same argument. Majority of pro-lifers fight to save the babies from being killed. And while we could argue they are hypocrites, from their perspective, putting abortion (that kills 1+ million babies per year in the US) before some school shooting or food aid is quite rational position.

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Is killing babies women's right?

In his latest publicity stunt, Kendrick Lamar bloodied himself with a crown of thorns to protest the violations of women's rights. (Diamond encrusted crown of thorns worth some $3 million.) Again, we see this everywhere: abortion is women's right, abortion is women's choice.

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Until a baby comes out of a man’s body, an opinion on abortion shouldn’t come out of his mouth.

[popular sexist slogan]

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Unless jews lives in man's house, an opinion on evicting jews shouldn’t come out of man's mouth.

[menkampfed by me]

Women's right my ass. 'Women's rights' is red herring. There is a good argument to be made that a fetus is not a person and there is a good argument to be made that even if it was, the mother has no ultimate obligation to support it with her body. But not because she is a women.

In "perhaps the most widely reprinted essay in all of contemporary philosophy", A Defense of Abortion, Judith Jarvis Thomson argues that one's right to life does not override someone else's right to have jurisdiction over their body. But not because they are a women, because they are a person. Right to an abortion is a human right. And the right to question it is a human right too, regardless of your gender.

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Never a fight of men against women

It has all been said before - roughly same percentage of men and women are pro and anti abortion (Gallup, Pew Research). Abortion was legalised by 7 men, the protection was removed by 4 men and 1 women. Yet men (and only men) are endlessly demonised and the problem is relentlessly painted as war between the sexes.

One cannot escape the realisation, that all this irrationality, sexism and hate is hurting the abortion seeking women in the first place. Wouldn't it be better to have men as allies? Wouldn't it be better to sooth the pro-lifers' fears instead of feeding them with straw-mans? I think there are three factors in play here:

Firstly, the some pro-lifers can not be reasonably argued with. It has been tried, they are hopelessly irrational and skilfully manipulated by their malicious political leaders.

Secondly, there is a lot of genuine frustration and anger. In the end, even irrational argument may be an effective rallying cry. It is easier to shout my-body-my-choice than I-am-not-morraly-obliged-to-sustain-a-fetus-whose-personhood-is-hard-to-define. And most of the rational men will keep supporting the right thing anyway, demonised or not.

Thirdly, the pro-choice movement - and the lukewarm majority with it - is being skilfully manipulated by malicious political leaders too. Feminists never shied away form making fallacious argument to further their agenda. The anger and suffering of other women gives them a chance to further polarise the society, a chance to get more power for themselves.