What does abortion mean to you?  According to MedlinePlus, abortion is a procedure to terminate a pregnancy, but when some people hear this, they believe they are terminating a human’s life, even though the fetus does not have all of the body parts required to be considered a human. All people hold their opinion when it comes to abortions, in any type of situation, but older men over the age of 50 are frequently found to be the least supportive of women having abortions. 

What is an abortion? 

An Abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. It can be done in two different ways: Medication abortion, which uses medicines to end the pregnancy. It is sometimes called a “medical abortion” or “abortion with pills.” Procedural abortion is a procedure to remove the pregnancy from the uterus. It is sometimes called a “surgical abortion.”

Older Men

Men older than 50 are less supportive of abortions. According to Gallup’s annual survey, the only demographic in America that reliably opposes abortion access is men over the age of 50. This actively demonstrates that Men over the age of 50 are the only age group in America that consistently contradicts abortion access.

According to this graph from Gallup above depicts the percentages of men who considered themselves pro-life or pro-choice from 2004 to 2022. This graph shows that in 2004, men were split in half, with half being pro-choice and the other half being pro-life. This may give the impression that politics is involved in this decision. Randall Balmer, a religion professor at Dartmouth College, said The Republican Party, too, didn’t rally around the issue until the late ’70s, when they saw it was a political winner, he says. In 1978, four Democratic U.S. Senate candidates were defeated in upsets after their GOP opponents mounted a strong anti-abortion campaign. This means that the Republican Party didn’t care about abortion or didn’t give it enough importance at the time, but when they saw how the other party was using it to gain more votes/support, they introduced an anti-abortion campaign. This graph also illustrates that as time passed, more men over the age of 50 identified as pro-life. 

Young perspective 

Young teenagers, two males, and two females were chosen to represent both perspectives on abortion. In the interview they were asked, What do you think about older men saying that abortions should be illegal? SPASH student Fernando Martinez stated, “I don’t care what they say or think because it’s the women’s decision, she’s the one who has the baby.” “I believe that men should have no say in basically everything dealing with abortions,” Stephany Gonzalez added. “I believe this because it is the woman who is putting herself in danger by caring for the baby.”

They were also asked if older men should have an opinion on a woman’s body. What is your reasoning? “No, because men would have a hissy fit if a woman had an opinion/choice about a man’s body,” said Drea Peskie, a former SPASH student. Why should men have an opinion when they lack female body parts?” “If they are not directly impacted by a specific woman’s decisions, they should not have an opinion on what that woman can or cannot do,” Carlos Gonzalez added. “They should have an opinion only if the woman contemplating abortion is their wife/girlfriend.”

Overall, this interview demonstrates that young teenagers are more open-minded about abortions. In this interview, we can see how the teenagers stated that it was up to the women to decide whether or not to have an abortion, and that men have no right to make decisions about a woman’s body. 

To summarize, men over the age of 50 have been pro-life since 2004 and have consistently opposed abortion access. Young teenagers argue that whether or not to have an abortion is entirely up to the woman. They also state that men are not allowed to have an opinion on the subject.