Currently, the only two Democratic members of Congress to publicly oppose abortion are: Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, which was noted in a recent column about the “end of pro-life Democrats” at the federal level. Republican women in the House, meanwhile, have historically been more likely than Republican men to oppose anti-abortion legislation, the Georgetown researchers noted, but that gender gap has disappeared in recent years as more moderate candidates were replaced by “strongly pro-life women from the South and Midwest.”
At the same time, experts say framing abortion as a women’s issue may prevent men from taking up the abortion-rights side of the cause, whether as advocates or lawmakers — saying anti-abortion activists have strategically capitalized on the power men wield in politics and business. “Let’s be real: there’s a WHOLE lot of men whose lives, careers, and families have benefited from an abortion,” US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, tweeted in the wake of Roe’s reversal. “Men, we need you right now. You can get through in rooms others can’t. Your power matters.” Some abortion rights advocates also note that gender-based framing of the issue leaves out transgender and nonbinary people who could be affected.
