MERJ Newsletter 3/17/2025
“But if you feel like it doesn’t affect you, soon something IS gonna be in your lane, and you’re gonna wish that you had been in this fight from the beginning.”
A letter from MERJ’s co-founder
March 28, 2025
Dear MERJ Constituents,
CALLING ALL MEN! Reproductive justice is not just “a women’s issue”—it’s a human rights issue. If you believe in bodily autonomy, equality, and the right to make personal medical decisions, there’s a role for you in this fight. Sign up for our monthly newsletter here!
Men love Action Steps, so here we go:
1. Listen and Learn - Start by educating yourself. Read about the history of reproductive rights, listen to activists, and understand how abortion restrictions impact marginalized communities. Engage with feminist and reproductive justice organizations to learn how you can be a strong ally.
2. Use Your Voice - Men have unique opportunities to shift conversations. Speak up against misinformation and stigma in your social and professional circles. Challenge harmful narratives and advocate for policies that protect reproductive rights.
3. Support Organizations- Donate your wealth to abortion funds, volunteer for reproductive justice groups, and become a clinic escort.
Scary, Scary News Coming Out of Texas*
The Texas Senate is debating several abortion bills, including SB 31, a Trojan Horse bill that could revive a 1925 abortion ban. Framed as a “clarification for doctors,” SB 31 was written by the super-right-wing Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion organization. It would allow prosecution of abortion funds, helpers, and even patients.
Texas Right to Life’s president admitted the bill “updates the pre-Roe statutes,” signaling Republicans’ intent to enforce the old ban. It also mandates a state-run ‘education’ course for doctors—likely controlled by other anti-abortion extremists like AAPLOG.
Other dangerous bills currently moving through the Texas legislature include SB 33, which blocks taxpayer money from funding abortion travel assistance, and SB 2880, which allows citizens to sue online platforms sharing abortion-related information, aiming to silence abortion access nationwide.
Reproductive justice benefits everyone. The fight for bodily autonomy requires all of us—get involved, stay informed, and stand in solidarity.
Justin Haas
Co-Founder, Men for Equity and Reproductive Justice
*Please read more at Abortion, Every Day by Jessica Valenti
📖 8-Minute Power Read, from Jessica Valenti’s “Abortion Every Day” newsletter:
“The Year in Abortion: Criminalization”
“The punishment is the point”
Written by Jessica Valenti. Posted December 30, 2023, but still incredibly relevant considering today’s news. Cross-linked by Valenti in a breaking news article she posted on “Abortion Every Day” on March 17, 2025. Also deeply connected to the points that the author made in her most recent book, which MERJ leadership has been reading in their most recent book group study; see below in this newsletter for more information.
Excerpt, with quotations: In 2023, Republicans made it clear that their true goal isn’t just to restrict abortion access, but to punish those who defy their control over women’s lives. As the article states, “The punishment has always been the point,” with stories of women like a Nebraska teenager sentenced for self-managing her abortion and an Ohio woman prosecuted for flushing her miscarriage. The GOP's tactics go beyond targeting individual patients—they seek to criminalize community support, as evidenced by proposed laws that “would punish professors with prison time for ‘promoting’ abortion” and bills designed to make “lending someone money or sharing information about abortion illegal.” The chilling effect of these policies is evident, with “anti-choice legislators and activists… ensuring that people are too afraid to break [abortion bans],” creating a culture where fear prevents even medical professionals from offering necessary care. As the author poignantly remarks, “Republicans want us to be afraid: too scared to help each other, too anxious to share our abortion plan with a friend—too scared, even, to get medical help when we need it.”
🔊👂🏽 11-minute Power Listen:
“The Unequal Impacts of Abortion Bans,” episode 856 of the “Public Health on Call” podcast
produced with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
“New research shows that abortion bans led to more unwanted or unsafe pregnancies carried to term, resulting in an increase in both live births and infant deaths.”
Posted February 24, 2025
Some facts highlighted in the episode:
Impact of Abortion Bans on Births and Infant Mortality: Following the Dobbs decision, abortion bans led to a 1.7% increase in live births across states with restrictions, amounting to more than 22,000 excess births by the end of 2023. However, these bans also caused a 6% increase in infant mortality, resulting in an additional 478 infant deaths, particularly in Southern states like Texas and Kentucky.
Disproportionate Effects on Marginalized Populations: The study found that the impact of abortion bans was most severe among marginalized populations, including non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and low-income individuals, those without a college degree, younger people, unmarried individuals, and those residing in Southern states.
Increase in Infant Mortality Among Black Infants: Non-Hispanic Black infants experienced an 11% higher infant mortality rate in states with abortion bans, highlighting the disproportionate impact on this group, which already faces higher risks due to systemic health disparities.
Consequences of Banning Abortions for Doomed Pregnancies: The research suggests that abortion bans prevent pregnant individuals from terminating pregnancies diagnosed with fatal fetal anomalies, forcing them to carry doomed pregnancies to term, resulting in increased infant deaths due to congenital defects.
Broader Implications for Maternal and Infant Health: The study also points to potential negative effects on maternal health, including increased maternal mortality and morbidity, which are linked to the restrictive abortion policies and poor maternal care in states with such bans.
💸 Amazing Organization to Support:
Located five minutes outside of El Paso, Texas, this clinic provides critical abortion and reproductive health services to both states’ populations.
📚 MERJ Book Club!
If you’re interested in joining the MERJ Leadership Team in reading and discussing this book, email us at action@endthepatriarchy.org and we’ll be happy to invite you to our book discussions!
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win, by Jessica Valenti
Published October 1, 2024; notes below from Penguin Random House website.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In a stirring and succinct examination of post-Roe America, “one of the most successful and visible feminists of her generation” (Washington Post) takes on what’s become the country’s most resonant political issue.
A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
In her most urgent book yet, New York Times bestselling author Jessica Valenti shines a light on the conservative assault on women’s freedom, cutting through the misinformation and overwhelm to inform, engage, and enrage. From the attacks Americans know about to the ones anti-abortion lawmakers and groups are trying to hide, Valenti details the tactics and horrors that she’s been painstakingly tracking in her acclaimed newsletter, Abortion, Every Day.
Award-winning writer and activist Jessica Valenti is the author of seven books, including the New York Times bestseller Sex Object: A Memoir. Her groundbreaking anthology, Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, paved the way for legislation of the same name, setting what’s now considered the gold standard for sexual consent. Jessica has also been credited with sparking feminism’s online wave by founding the trailblazing blog Feministing. She’s been a columnist for The Guardian and The Nation, and her writing has been published everywhere from The New York Times and The Atlantic to Bitch magazine and The Toast. After the demise of Roe, Jessica founded Abortion, Every Day, an urgent synthesis of anything and everything happening with abortion rights in the United States. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.
***Please also consider supporting Jessica Valenti’s up-to-the-minute and incredibly important journalism (“Abortion Every Day”) by subscribing to her Substack!
We recently completed, and strongly recommend, this easy-to-read and powerful book as well:
Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion, by Gabrielle Blair
Published in 2022; notes below from Bookshop.org
In Ejaculate Responsibly, Gabrielle Blair offers a provocative reframing of the abortion issue in post-Roe America.
In a series of 28 brief arguments, Blair deftly makes the case for moving the abortion debate away from controlling and legislating women's bodies and instead directs the focus on men's lack of accountability in preventing unwanted pregnancies.
Highly readable, accessible, funny, and unflinching, Blair builds her argument by walking readers through the basics of fertility (men are 50 times more fertile than women), the unfair burden placed on women when it comes to preventing pregnancy (90% of the birth control market is for women), the wrongheaded stigmas around birth control for men (condoms make sex less pleasurable, vasectomies are scary and emasculating), and the counterintuitive reality that men, who are fertile 100% of the time, take little to no responsibility for preventing pregnancy.
The result is a compelling and convincing case for placing the responsibility--and burden--of preventing unwanted pregnancies away from women and onto men.
Help and Resources to Share with Anyone Needing an Abortion: (from ifwhenhow.org)
Find a local clinic by using the National Abortion Federation map.
If you have questions about your legal rights and self-managed abortion, the Repro Legal Helpline is a free, confidential source for legal advice and information. Visit ReproLegalHelpline.org or call 844-868-2812.
If you are under 18 and need information about your rights to an abortion, you can message or call our Repro Legal Helpline at 844-868-2812. You can also read more about your rights on our Judicial Bypass Wiki.
If you have been arrested, contacted by the police, or fear you may be arrested for a self-managed abortion, our Repro Legal Helpline can provide immediate legal advice and support, and our Repro Legal Defense Fund can help with bail and legal fees. You can call our Repro Legal Helpline at 844-868-2812, and for help with bail and other fees, visit ReproLegalDefenseFund.org.
Medically-reviewed, step-by-step directions for how to self-administer a medication abortion using mifepristone and misoprostol can be found on the Hey Jane website.
