Just as reproductive rights activists predicted, the Supreme Court is on its way to overturning Roe v. Wade. The move will have undeniably devastating consequences for women, especially poor and Black women. But make no mistake, even people who don’t get pregnant will suffer once Roe is struck down.

“This is a time of reckoning for men,” masculinity expert and scholar Jackson Katz told me. “Men should care about this issue if they care about preserving and defending democracy."

There are many reasons, practically speaking, that men are direct beneficiaries of abortion rights in America. The ability to plan how many children a man wants and when he wants to have them is because of the long, hard-fought movement women led for reproductive rights. The right to contraception was won on the basis of the right to privacy in Griswold v. Connecticut, a Supreme Court case that will be severely weakened if the five conservative justices strike down Roe.....

If it was about babies as Republicans claim, they would be fighting for more child benefits, not less. If it was about saving lives, they would be supporting universal health care, not trying to get rid of it and they would never back a policy that would lead to a 21 percent increase in maternal mortality.

This isn’t just about women’s reproductive freedom. It’s not even just about men’s. What’s at stake is much greater and the failure to act has implications that are much more sinister. “If men truly believe in women’s fundamental right to control their own bodies and reproductive lives, not to mention their own sexuality, they need to start taking more risks,” Katz said. And if men want tips about where to start, they can look to the women who have been fighting for their freedom all along.