Abortion Law & the Free Pass for Men

What foes of abortion really mean when they talk about “responsibility”

It’s quite a time we live in. Conservative-led legislatures keep passing more and more punitive laws to restrict abortion. Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Ohio seemingly set the bar high with their heartbeat laws. Then Alabama blew past them by criminalizing abortion without exceptions for rape or incest, as male lawmakers endorsed the premise that if God didn’t intend a woman to bear her rapist’s child, she wouldn’t get pregnant. (The spectacularly dim Alabama Senator Clyde Chambliss calls this the “wisdom of the Heavenly Father.”)

Most abortion opponents I know wouldn’t take things quite that far. Instead, they tend to repeat a refrain that sounds less harsh and more logical: It’s all about personal responsibility. Some approach this claim with piety (and a little scorn), opining that people must always be held responsible for the consequences of their actions. Others take a seemingly gentler tack, professing sympathy for those who feel unable to bear and care for a child, while still arguing that they must accept their responsibility even so because “the deed is done.”

Off the cuff, that may sound eminently reasonable, but only if you don’t think about it too closely: the truth is that these laws demand “responsibility” from women only and, in turn, punish only women.