We live in a patriarchal world. So on top of that, men are going to decide what women should do with their bodies? It’s just nuts. It should be a nonissue and it should be a choice of each individual woman. Not her community, not her family, not her boyfriend, not her husband, not her father.

It shouldn’t ever be a thing, where we have to justify why a woman’s getting an abortion. I feel like that’s a thing that happens too much: “This is why she needs to get an abortion.” “This is why it’s justified.” It’s justified because the woman wants to. That should be where it starts from.

I think there’s a severe lack of education about what women go through as far as childbearing, miscarriages, and abortion. All the complications that can come with having a child, getting pregnant, trying to get pregnant, raising children. Breastfeeding, physically having a child. When people don’t have education, they lack empathy and compassion and understanding. The key to compassion and empathy isn’t just being a loving, good person. It’s having education and knowledge of what someone else is going through that you don’t go through.

Men have to hold other men accountable and hold themselves accountable. And educate themselves about this abortion issue. Learn. Just actually learn. And also know that you’re not a woman. I’m not saying my opinion doesn’t matter, but I’m not a woman. I’m never going to have a baby, so maybe my opinion doesn’t matter.

Tremaine Emory is the creative director of Supreme.

“I don’t go to a rabbi for a colonoscopy. In the same way, I don’t go to the Bible for jurisdiction over abortion.”

By Josh Gondelman

Every person who can become pregnant should have the option to have an abortion, if that is their choice. And it should be within geographical and financial accessibility for them. I think it’s a subset of health care, and health care is a right that people should have.

I try to be pretty vocal about the topic. I’m always trying to figure out, in any given instance, whether it is more helpful for me to use my own voice or to amplify the voice of others and decenter my own point of view. But I also don’t want to feel like a loser coward retweeting someone, and then letting people be like, “die,” to them. That doesn’t seem right either. Figuring out what the lane is that we want men in is helpful. I think abortion funds are probably some of the forms of aid that I donate money to most frequently, and spotlighting those is really helpful.

This is not breaking new ground, but it’s so hypocritical when religion dictates what other people can do with their own bodies. First of all, the Jewish religion says that people should have access to abortion in many, if not all cases. Also, we’re talking about medical advice. I don’t go to a rabbi for a colonoscopy. In the same way, I don’t go to the Bible for jurisdiction over abortion. The people who are making laws based on this are doing so in that rich tradition of American theocracy under the banner of “Judeo-Christian values.” Well, who said those are everybody’s values here anyway? And keep the Judeo out of your Christian values.

The Editors of GQ

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