Feminist Explains Men's Reproductive Rights | Katherine Spillar | Outtakes from "The Red Pill" — Transcript

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1. 0:05[Music]
2. 0:08thank you
3. 0:12[Music]
4. 0:14so talking about Reproductive Rights
5. 0:17right women have made a lot of advances
6. 0:19and progress
7. 0:22men's rights activists feel like they
8. 0:25have virtually no Reproductive Rights do
9. 0:28you think they do
10. 0:31sure they do men have the right to take
11. 0:35responsibility for contraception and
12. 0:37birth control and then if
13. 0:41if they have a father a child taking
14. 0:44responsibility for that child's
15. 0:46upbringing
16. 0:48this whole fight on Reproductive Rights
17. 0:51right now is definitely there's no
18. 0:52question as part of the backlash
19. 0:54if you think about it and actually I was
20. 0:57at a United Nations conference and heard
21. 0:59a woman from
22. 1:01uh Brazil talking about the fight in her
23. 1:07country for Reproductive Rights for
24. 1:09women and for girls and they're the
25. 1:12Catholic church has tremendous influence
26. 1:14on government policy making and on the
27. 1:17laws that are made the Catholic church
28. 1:19and of course not only is abortion
29. 1:22illegal but birth control is illegal and
30. 1:26she said she was talking about the
31. 1:28current issues and the feminist movement
32. 1:30there and it was all about uh
33. 1:32Reproductive Rights having access to
34. 1:35contraception having access to Safe
35. 1:37abortion and reproductive health care
36. 1:39and she was apologetic she said we're
37. 1:42we're consumed by these issues because
38. 1:45it is how women reach autonomy
39. 1:48and
40. 1:49I knew this intellectually but hearing
41. 1:52it from her mouth I was struck again by
42. 1:55how Central having control over your own
43. 1:59fertility is to your own sense of self
44. 2:02and well-being and
45. 2:06free agency if you are constantly
46. 2:09impregnated against your will in a
47. 2:11marriage out of a marriage doesn't
48. 2:13matter
49. 2:14you have very little control over your
50. 2:16life because you're responsible for the
51. 2:20upbringing of children and you're
52. 2:22responsible for their health and their
53. 2:23care and their education and their
54. 2:25feeding
55. 2:26and so having the ability to decide if
56. 2:30you'll ever have children and how many
57. 2:32and under what conditions and when is
58. 2:36powerful it's very powerful because it
59. 2:40makes a woman a full human being able to
60. 2:44make her own decisions and to control
61. 2:46her own destiny and patriarchy depends
62. 2:51on
63. 2:52uh men being able to control that in
64. 2:54women
65. 2:55and that is what the fight is over
66. 2:57now that of course those most opposed to
67. 3:01abortion rights and access to abortion
68. 3:04access even to birth control we're not a
69. 3:06fight in this country again that we
70. 3:09thought we had the movement generally
71. 3:11thought was over in the 1960s and it's
72. 3:14the fight to access contraception
73. 3:16that's the fight now we're in in
74. 3:19addition to keeping abortion safe and
75. 3:23accessible and legal
76. 3:26well men know this and so access to
77. 3:31birth control access to abortion has
78. 3:34always been something they have
79. 3:36struggled throughout all of history to
80. 3:39control
81. 3:40now women are always going to have
82. 3:42control of that and women will do
83. 3:44whatever it takes to control it
84. 3:45including give up their own lives women
85. 3:49will seek a back alley abortion women
86. 3:52will self-induce abortion whatever it
87. 3:56takes to control her fertility and she
88. 3:58will do it no matter what even if it
89. 4:01means her own life and
90. 4:05that's how determined females around the
91. 4:08world are to have the control without
92. 4:10that control your life is a Gamble
93. 4:15your life is a Gamble and you um you if
94. 4:19you have too many children you will be
95. 4:21poor you will not be able to invest in
96. 4:23them properly and women especially who
97. 4:25are who are raising children on their
98. 4:27own face economic discrimination in the
99. 4:30workplace
100. 4:32and they're doing everything they can
101. 4:34just to keep it together so without that
102. 4:36control
103. 4:37you have seeded your your autonomy to to
104. 4:42whoever can impregnate you so it's very
105. 4:45Central it always has been and it's why
106. 4:48as part of the backlash there is this
107. 4:51effort to again make abortion
108. 4:53inaccessible illegal to keep
109. 4:57contraception and birth control away
110. 4:59from women
111. 5:00and um
112. 5:03but women aren't going back that's all
113. 5:05there is to it
114. 5:07absolutely
115. 5:08mras feel like if women have the right
116. 5:13to choose pro-choice the women have the
117. 5:16right to choose to have an abortion
118. 5:17then men should also have a right some
119. 5:20kind of right to choose whether or not
120. 5:22to be a father and so
121. 5:24they feel like okay well if a woman can
122. 5:26choose to have an abortion or keep the
123. 5:28baby if she keeps the baby well first of
124. 5:30all she has an abortion say he wanted
125. 5:31the baby
126. 5:33there's just no he should have thought
127. 5:35of that early on
128. 5:36that should be a discussion between a
129. 5:40man and a woman before you're faced with
130. 5:42an unintended unplanned pregnancy and in
131. 5:46her case an unwanted pregnancy so if
132. 5:48you're going to be having sex that could
133. 5:51result in pregnancy and you haven't had
134. 5:53this conversation with the woman that
135. 5:56you're having sex with you better have
136. 5:57it better have it fast what happens if
137. 6:00birth control fails what happens if
138. 6:02you're not using birth control or
139. 6:04contraception so you better have that
140. 6:06conversation up front that's when the
141. 6:08man has the ability to make decisions
142. 6:11either not to engage in sex or to use
143. 6:15condoms and to use other forms of
144. 6:17contraception so that's where his role
145. 6:20comes in once he's impregnated her she's
146. 6:23the one now faced with continuing a
147. 6:25pregnancy faced with the health risks
148. 6:28that accompany pregnancy
149. 6:30and over over a third of all pregnant
150. 6:33agencies even in the United States have
151. 6:35complications and problems for her
152. 6:39and ultimately
153. 6:42he can walk away
154. 6:44and she has to worry about how to feed
155. 6:47and clothe and educate and care for and
156. 6:49raise another human being and all too
157. 6:52frequently men do walk away just walk
158. 6:54away so
159. 6:56his rights have to be
160. 6:59exercised early before a decision is
161. 7:01made and they better be making the
162. 7:03decision together they better have
163. 7:06agreed that
164. 7:08a conception is what they're willing to
165. 7:12risk or that that's what they want
166. 7:15but once she's pregnant
167. 7:18all decisions must be hers because
168. 7:21ultimately
169. 7:23she is the most impacted there's just no
170. 7:26question and she ultimately has the
171. 7:28responsibility for that child
172. 7:31so the men's Rights Act activists went
173. 7:34uh they're pushing an initiative to have
174. 7:37a consent form that is signed once the
175. 7:41baby is born so say the woman decides to
176. 7:43keep the baby
177. 7:45mras feel like they should not be
178. 7:48enslaved to 18 years of child support if
179. 7:51they would have wanted to have an
180. 7:52abortion so they feel once the baby is
181. 7:54born they could sign away their
182. 7:56responsibilities to the child where they
183. 7:59have no financial responsibility to take
184. 8:01care of that child
185. 8:03well see this is where they should have
186. 8:04had this conversation early on and made
187. 8:07a decision if they're going to engage in
188. 8:09sexual intercourse that could result in
189. 8:11a pregnancy they better have thought all
190. 8:13that through that's where their role
191. 8:16comes in
192. 8:18um
193. 8:18once there's been a conception and a
194. 8:21pregnancy is carried to term they have a
195. 8:24responsibility because they they
196. 8:25participated equally in the creation of
197. 8:28that so it's too late then for them to
198. 8:32claim they have a right to walk away
199. 8:33although they do walk away you know
200. 8:35you know they do it all the time
201. 8:39so
202. 8:40I don't know what they're so worried
203. 8:42about what they're really worried about
204. 8:43is that they have to take responsibility
205. 8:47and that they can't just engage in
206. 8:50sexual intercourse with anyone they want
207. 8:52to at any time and and not bear any
208. 8:55responsibility for contraception any
209. 8:57responsibility for the outcome I mean
210. 9:00there's no question that sexual
211. 9:01intercourse leads to pregnancy so
212. 9:04think about that and where is it that a
213. 9:07man can have total control over what
214. 9:11happens it's on the front end of that he
215. 9:13can prevent pregnancy
216. 9:16he can prevent pregnancy or he can agree
217. 9:18to a pregnancy and to being a
218. 9:21responsible parent
219. 9:23that's where his decisions come in
220. 9:28[Music]
221. 9:32thank you
222. 9:34[Music]