#march4choice

I've been to a number of pro-choice events, and they're usually populated with the usual suspects - typically cis or trans women or genderqueer individuals, feminist activists in their early twenties. There are usually some men at these events, and I'm always touched by their presence, but they are a minority.

A lot of men I know take the "no uterus, no opinion" standpoint. They're pro-choice in that they respect that they have no right to interfere with a woman's right to do what she decides is best for her, but they're rarely vocal about it. They don't have to be. In the case of unplanned pregnancy, men always have a choice.

But of the thousands who showed up to the March for Choice in Dublin on Saturday, a lot of them were men. I saw teenage boys, middle-aged fathers pushing strollers, and men in their sixties, of all races and walks of life. Some walked hand-in-hand with girlfriends, wives, or partners, others marched in groups, and some showed up alone carrying signs supporting the cause.

At a pro-choice film screening I'd attended the evening before, there was one man on the panel of five. He addressed the fact that, while the pioneers of abortion rights movements in the U.S. and other countries were 90 percent women, men are largely vocal in the Irish movement to legalize abortion, accounting for 30-40 percent of activists.

Ireland is unique in being the only country in the world that legally affords equal rights to a fetus and a mother. Despite numerous court cases challenging this, even if a woman's life is in danger, there is no way for her to obtain an abortion on the island. Irish men and women are fighting for rights the rest of the modern world have come to take for granted for nearly two generations now.

Despite regressive laws and religious attitudes, Ireland exists in a progressing world. Advances in attitudes toward gender equality have had a global effect. Male feminists are involved in ways and numbers never seen before. Things like abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception are no long "their" problem. Even if you don't think an issue affects you directly, it's everyone's responsibility to take a stand.

The Irish campaign to legalize abortion has the benefit of taking place in a modern era. Activists have tools like the Internet and social media to help them mobilize and make their voices heard, they have allies in their neighbourhoods and on the other side of the world, and they have predendents.