I have some painful questions to ask: What drives too many women to have abortions? Who gave and continues to vigorously support women in obtaining these abortions on demand?

The answer in both cases is men: in particular, the men who get them pregnant but want nothing to do with the lives they helped create.

Men who will gladly pay for a woman’s abortion, be they the husbands, boyfriends, fathers or even the employers of those women. Indeed, in the first place, it was nine men on the U.S. Supreme Court who gave women this “right” in 1973.

Essentially, the court gave women the “choice” to kill an unplanned child so as not to lose the love and support of men in their lives. I once read a study that showed that young women are four times more likely to have abortions if their partners aren’t there and supportive of them as mothers.

Abortion, says Christian feminist writer Frederica Mathewes-Green, is just a “choice of despair” given to women by men, that only the women will have to live with. Men’s part in this tragic matter is barely ever mentioned.

I believe the abortion narrative needs to change. We men need to start taking responsibility for the children we help create.

Rev. Jim King
Portland