But if you look at how the conversation is being shaped in the United States and whose experiences are centered, you would think that men have no role to play and nothing to lose with the systemic loss of women’s reproductive health and rights in America.

Oh, but they do. One in five men has impregnated someone who’s had an abortion. Men cause 100 percent of unintended pregnancies and are legislating the majority of anti-abortion laws.

So where do they get the audacity to stay as deafeningly silent as they have been when it comes to voicing support for a woman’s right to choose in 2022?

When it comes to women’s health, where are the men?

Not surprisingly, most of our research on abortion focuses on the birthing person. Experts state that one in four American women will have an abortion, about 60 percent are in their 20s, roughly 75 percent are low income, 62 percent are religious, and more than half are already parents.

But while they may not be the focus of research, men gain a lot when women’s reproductive health and rights are protected, as does society on a whole.

In her study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, Dr. Bethany Everett, a professor of sociology at the University of Utah, found that young men whose partners had an abortion were nearly four times more likely to graduate from college than those whose partners gave birth.

These numbers infuriate me so much. How is it that we can never count on the support of men when we need it most—even on issues such as abortion which they gain so much from? How do they still lack the courage to use their voices to save the right to an abortion, even as women across the country pour into the streets in a literal fight for our lives?

It reminds me of how men continue to stay silent on the issue of rape and sexual assault. Though male ally groups and organizations around sexual assault increased three-fold in my lifetime, generally speaking, men still don’t do enough to call each other out when it comes to violence against women or even every day sexual harassment.

But it’s so powerful when men do speak up—for anything. Hollywood actor Regé-Jean Page gave us all a reminder of just how impactful men’s words to other men can be when he stood up for his costar, Florence Pugh, who was recently body shamed by online trolls. Page reshared Pugh’s Instagram post on his Instagram Stories, and added some much-needed feminist commentary to it.

“Read the caption,” Page writes. “Take a look at yourself fellas. Then take a look at your mates and step up when it’s time to step up. When the boys are out of line, have a word. The weird thing about misogyny is men actually listen to other men. So do your bit, cos the next few years in particular are gonna be a really good time to listen, and take some responsibility, for everyone’s sake.”

When it comes to women’s health, America is at a breaking point. And women need all our allies, not just to stand by our sides, but to be vocal. American women are in the middle of the fight for our lives and our daughter’s lives. And we can no longer afford the silence of men.

If men talking about how they benefit from or agree with a woman’s right to decide when to have a child can bring more of us into the fight for reproductive justice, we can reverse the current destructive course we are on.

But there’s only one way to find out.

Anushay Hossain is a writer and a feminist policy analyst focusing on women’s health legislation. She is a regular on-air guest at CNN, MSNBC, and PBS, and her writing on politics, gender, and race has been published in Forbes, CNN, USA TODAY, The Daily Beast, and more. Hossain is also the host of the Spilling Chai podcast and author of “The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women.”

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.