The underlying problem with the abortion-choice slogan “no uterus, no opinion” is that it equivocates between propositional knowledge and experiential knowledge. How so? When the abortion-choice advocate says something like “You’re a man” or “Men can’t get pregnant,” I understand them to be making the following claim: Men cannot know what it is like to be pregnant. Notice the type of knowledge implied is experiential knowledge. Men cannot know what it is like to be pregnant.
It seems silly this objection is given so much attention. Unfortunately, any male pro-life advocate involved in the abortion debate will eventually, at one time or another, hear something like the following protest from an abortion-choice female:
You’re a man. Men can’t get pregnant. Abortion is a women’s issue. Therefore, you can’t speak on abortion.
Or the more popular slogan, “No uterus, no opinion.” Pro-life advocates have been quick to offer persuasive rejoinders.
First, arguments don’t have gender.[1] A pro-life woman could just as easily present the exact same arguments and evidence for the pro-life view. Gender is irrelevant when it comes to truth, morality, and speaking out against injustice. Furthermore, women disagree on abortion just as men do. Christopher Kaczor points out in his book The Ethics of Abortion,
[T]here is simply no such thing as the women’s perspective on abortion or the experience of women with abortion. There is no female perspective on this issue any more than there is a male perspective or a brown-eyed person’s perspective.[2]
Pro-life women who offer persuasive arguments for the pro-life view cannot be so easily dismissed with “no uterus, no opinion.” But if that’s the case, why should men who put forward the same arguments and evidence?
Second, if men are not allowed to address the abortion issue, it seems odd that abortion-choice advocates would consistently appeal to Roe v. Wade as justification for their view. After all, Roe v. Wade was decided by nine maleSupreme Court Justices. “But,” the feminist philosopher may respond, “those male justices supported a woman’s right to choose.” True, but now you are engaging in special pleading. You are putting forth a general principle (“men can’t speak on abortion”) while making a special exception because it favors your position (“men can speak on abortion if they agree with me”). That won’t work.
