Strategy watch: Very sad men
The gender-essentialist pseudo-science of "male postabortion syndrome"
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In June 2011, a billboard appeared on White Sands Boulevard, the main thoroughfare in the town of Alamogordo, N.M. On the billboard was a photo of Alamogordo resident and jilted ex-borfriend Greg Fultz; he is pictured holding the outline of an infant. Beside Fultz are large words in black lettering against a stark white background: “This Would Have Been A Picture Of My 2-Month Old Baby If the Mother Had Not Decided to KILL Our Child!”
Thirty-five year-old Greg Fultz’s very public and very visual mantrum1 suggesting his ex-girlfriend, who was just eighteen years old, had an abortion was an overt act of intimate-partner harassment. Humiliated, Fultz's ex-girlfriend sued him for harassment and violation of privacy, and a judge granted an order of protection against him. When a judge ordered Fultz to take down the harassing billboard, Fultz refused, citing his First Amendment right to free speech to harass the woman who dumped him.
"I have had no closure over my own personal loss and that's where the billboard came into play,” Fultz bemoaned.2
New Mexico's Right to Life Committee endorsed the billboard,3 despite Fultz’s billboard being a blatant attempt to harass and humiliate his ex-girlfriend. That is, until New Mexico's Right to Life Committee “received a number of emails from people who said Fultz' ex-girlfriend had a miscarriage, not an abortion, said executive director Dauneen Dolce.”4 — Greg Fultz did not actually know whether his ex-girlfriend had miscarried or had sought an abortion,5 and according to a report in the Albuquerque Journal, Fulz’s ex-girlfriend had lost her pregnancy in a miscarriage.6
Still, anti-abortion organizations responded sympathetically to Greg Fultz’s vindictive billboard.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Matt Bowman commented on the billboard “and said the whole incident outlines the grief fathers bear in the abortion process.”7
“[The billboard] does highlight a deep and festering wound in our society: the harm that abortion causes to the fathers of aborted children… Most attention on post-abortion psychological harm is focused on the mothers, but men similarly have intense grief due to abortions of their children, both when they participate and when the abortion is done against their wishes.”8
Jeanne Monahan is the President of MARCH FOR LIFE’s Education and Defense Fund, but in 2011 she was with the Family Research Council. At the time of the incident, Monahan commented sympathetically.
“While abortion is often touted as a woman’s issue, a woman’s choice, the father is equally a parent to the developing little baby yet often lacks standing when it comes to a decision about abortion… One such man from New Mexico was recently silenced when he wanted to preserve and protect the life of his developing baby. His girlfriend had the abortion despite his convictions. He was so distressed and angered by his lack of choice in the matter that he commissioned a billboard on a major highway to communicate his experience.”9
SBA Pro-Life America published a post titled, “What about a father's rights?” The subheading of the article read:
“Abortion is often viewed as a woman’s issue. The role of the father and other family members is for the most part ignored. One man is fighting that ignorance.”10
Like other anti-abortion groups, SBA Pro-Life America’s post expressed sympathy for Greg Fultz.
“As is often the case, Fultz’s ex-girlfriend elected not to inform him of her pregnancy… Fultz’s grief is clear. His reaction… obviously demonstrates that abortion is not just a woman’s issue.”11
What was the reason for all of this sympathy from the anti-abortion movement for a jilted ex-boyfriend who used a billboard to harass and humiliate the young woman who had dumped him? Why focus on this man’s supposed grief without any similar acknowledgement of the torment he caused his young ex-girlfriend?
Capitalizing on the theory that abortion harms men is an “iteration of the fathers’ rights antiabortion strategy.”12 Proponents of this narrative refer to these supposed harms as male postabortion syndrome.
Back in 1981, during a congressional hearing on “Abortion and Family Relations,” an anti-abortion activist named Vincent Rue coined the term “post-abortion syndrome.”13 “Building on this testimony, Rue famously went on to develop a theory of ‘postabortion syndrome’ (PAS), which he proclaimed was similar to the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Vietnam veterans experienced in that both are ‘characterized by the chronic or delayed development of symptoms resulting from impacted emotional reactions to the perceived physical and emotional trauma of abortion.’ The concept of PAS meshed well with the [crisis pregnancy centers’] mission of steering women toward motherhood, and it thus quickly gained a foothold within the centers.”14
Vincent Rue “is not a qualified medical doctor. He has a PhD in human development and family studies from the University of North Carolina.”15 “Rue’s work on Post Abortion Syndrome appears designed to take whatever data exists and force it to fit a predetermined theory – that abortion harms women – rather than addressing the issue without preconceptions.”16 “Both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association have rejected Rue’s theory as a certified condition, due to allegations of flawed research and methodology.”17
Abortion opponents David Reardon and Anne Speckhard “took up the torch of the abortion-damaged woman. Both Reardon and Speckhard helped develop the diagnosis, arguing that because of ‘postabortion stress,’ women re-experienced the trauma of their abortion through flashbacks, hallucinations, and nightmares. Radical activist Norman Weslin explained it in more graphic terms: he said women with this syndrome woke ‘in the middle of the night, screaming, with dragons clutching at her stomach, and seeing phantom babies.’ In this diagnosis, anti-abortion activists imagined a new kind of victimhood for women who had abortions, one where their unknowing perpetration of a moral crime led to long-term psychological damage.”18 This woman-protective antiabortion argument (WPAA) “argues that women come to regret abortion because it violates their inherent nature as mothers.”
Since 2000, a similar narrative has been developing that “claims[] that abortion also harms men’s emotional well-being.”19 The male postabortion syndrome theory “rests on the argument that abortion harms men because it necessarily disrupts their inherent nature to be fathers. As one antiabortion activist and member of a men’s post-abortion support group described, ‘Men regret lost fatherhood, as men are inherently called to be fathers.’”20 This gender-essentialist theory “parallels the arguments advanced in the fathers’ rights antiabortion strategy by shifting the focus of abortion from the pregnant person’s right to bodily autonomy and focusing instead on the harms” of abortion on putative fathers.21
In 2007, in San Francisco, “abortion opponents held the first conference on male postabortion sydrome, “Men and Abortion: Reclaiming Fatherhood.”22 Topics included “Medicating the Pain of Lost Fatherhood” and “The Masculine Side of Healing.”
Data collected about this faux syndrome “comes from research on men participating in post-abortion support groups and research conducted by Catherine T. Coyle, codirector of the Alliance for Post-Abortion Research and Training”23 and an author at the anti-abortion website Men and Abortion. In 2019, Coyle told the BBC that giving women "unilateral power in abortion decisions is inconsistent with the notion of equality between the sexes.”24 A year earlier, Coyle and another antiabortion activist, Vincent Rue (mentioned above), were disinvited from speaking at an anti-abortion panel discussion, “Men and Abortion: A Critical Reappraisal of Why Men Matter,” hosted by Oxford Students for Life (OSFL).25 Oxford Students for Life explained, “We’re restructuring the event having looked further into Vincent Rue and Catherine Coyle’s previous research. We are committed to high academic standards and thus they will not be speaking at our event anymore.”26
According to Rue, who also now propagates the pseudo-scientific male postabortion syndrome theory,27 not only is “women’s reproductive autonomy [considered] as a threat to male authority within marriage,” but it also “threatens[] to ‘emasculate men’ by diminishing their sexuality.”28
Even though Coyle’s (and Rue’s) “research has been called into question by other researchers, it continues to be widely cited by authors and websites addressing men’s post-abortion syndrome and has spawned support groups and pro-life therapists focused on healing men’s post-abortion trauma.”29 Hence, anti-abortion activists “call for robust pre-abortion counseling for men to protect their mental and emotional health,”30 which may include the same techniques used in women's post-abortion counseling that are often similar to brainwashing.
Proponents of male postabortion syndrome “have claimed that men’s post-abortion syndrome may cause sexual dysfunction in men, including increased engagement in casual sex, impotence, and homosexuality after abortion.”31 At a 2017 training event held by the anti-abortion group Heartbeat International, “a Christian network of anti-abortion centers that seeks to eliminate abortion entirely,”32 a Heartbeat International trainer said that, after an abortion, a woman’s partner can “experience homosexuality.”33 Such claims are used by anti-abortion groups to both scare women out of getting an abortion for fear of harming their partner, as well as to frighten men into supporting the abolition of abortion.
Hyping up the absolutely false possibility that a man’s partner’s abortion could cause him to become impotent or suddenly become gay is intended to evoke men’s sense of manhood and masculinity. This strategy builds on long-held, male anti-abortion sentiment. For example, “drawing an explicit link between abortion and emasculation, George Gilder, an outspoken conservative commentator and author, declared that ‘because a man quite simply cannot father a baby unless his wife is fully and deliberately agreeable,’ his sexual potency, which was once a ‘weapon of procreation . . . that women . . . have viewed with some awe . . . is now almost completely lost. The male penis is no longer a decisive organ.’ He thus explains that in addition to representing a ‘repudiation of sexual liberation in general,’ antiabortion sentiments can ‘be seen as a symbol of resistance to the erosion of male sexuality.’”34 "Male postabortion syndrome “is another example of how antiabortion organizations… began to forge a narrative that abortion harms men and disrupts the natural order of patriarchal fatherhood.”35
Guilting pregnant people. Freaking men out. Breeding patriarchal hegemony. In the future, we can expect to see an increase in the use and propagation of the male postabortion syndrome anti-abortion strategy, as anti-abortion groups ramp up their work to recruit more and more men to their cause and to gain the sympathy of the public at large.
ABC News. (2011, June 7). Abortion Billboard Could Land New Mexico Ex-Boyfriend in Jail. https://abcnews.go.com/US/abortion-billboard-lands-mexico-man-court-girlfriend/story?id=13783668
Pollon, Z. (2011, June 8). New Mexico billboard accuses woman of having an abortion. Reuters . https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us/new-mexico-billboard-accuses-woman-of-having-an-abortion-idUSTRE7570F7/
Pollon, Z. (2011, June 8). New Mexico billboard accuses woman of having an abortion. Reuters . https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us/new-mexico-billboard-accuses-woman-of-having-an-abortion-idUSTRE7570F7/
ABC News. (2011, June 7). Abortion Billboard Could Land New Mexico Ex-Boyfriend in Jail. https://abcnews.go.com/US/abortion-billboard-lands-mexico-man-court-girlfriend/story?id=13783668
Associated Press. (2011, June 6). Jilted ex-boyfriend puts up abortion Billboard. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna43302321
Ertelt, S. (2011, August 2). Man can keep up billboard condemning girlfriend’s abortion. LifeNews.com. https://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/29/man-can-keep-up-billboard-condemning-girlfriends-abortion/
Ertelt, S. (2011, August 2). Man can keep up billboard condemning girlfriend’s abortion. LifeNews.com. https://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/29/man-can-keep-up-billboard-condemning-girlfriends-abortion/
Ertelt, S. (2011, August 2). Man can keep up billboard condemning girlfriend’s abortion. LifeNews.com. https://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/29/man-can-keep-up-billboard-condemning-girlfriends-abortion/
SBA Pro-Life America. (2011, June 8). What about a father’s rights? https://sbaprolife.org/suzy-b-blog/what-about-fathers-rights
SBA Pro-Life America. (2011, June 8). What about a father’s rights? https://sbaprolife.org/suzy-b-blog/what-about-fathers-rights
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3
Holland, J. L. (2020). Redefining Women’s Rights . In Tiny You: A Western History of the Anti-Abortion Movement (p. 149). essay, University of California Press.
Ehrlich, J. S., & Doan, A. E. (2019). Beyond the Crisis Pregnancy Centers, in Abortion regret: The new attack on Reproductive Freedom. (P. 107). Praeger, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Thomas, T. (2018, January 21). “pseudo-scientists” dropped from Oxford anti-abortion panel. Cherwell. https://cherwell.org/2018/01/21/pseudo-scientists-dropped-from-oxford-anti-abortion-panel/
Thomas, T. (2018, January 21). “pseudo-scientists” dropped from Oxford anti-abortion panel. Cherwell. https://cherwell.org/2018/01/21/pseudo-scientists-dropped-from-oxford-anti-abortion-panel/
Thomas, T. (2018, January 21). “pseudo-scientists” dropped from Oxford anti-abortion panel. Cherwell. https://cherwell.org/2018/01/21/pseudo-scientists-dropped-from-oxford-anti-abortion-panel/
Holland, J. L. (2020). Redefining Women’s Rights . In Tiny You: A Western History of the Anti-Abortion Movement (p. 149). essay, University of California Press.
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3
Prasad, R. (2019, May 17). Alabama abortion ban: Should men have a say in the debate?. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48262238
Thomas, T. (2018, January 21). “pseudo-scientists” dropped from Oxford anti-abortion panel. Cherwell. https://cherwell.org/2018/01/21/pseudo-scientists-dropped-from-oxford-anti-abortion-panel/
Thomas, T. (2018, January 21). “pseudo-scientists” dropped from Oxford anti-abortion panel. Cherwell. https://cherwell.org/2018/01/21/pseudo-scientists-dropped-from-oxford-anti-abortion-panel/
Thomas, T. (2018, January 21). “pseudo-scientists” dropped from Oxford anti-abortion panel. Cherwell. https://cherwell.org/2018/01/21/pseudo-scientists-dropped-from-oxford-anti-abortion-panel/
Ehrlich, J. S., & Doan, A. E. (2019). The Evolving Legal Status of Abortion, in Abortion regret: The new attack on Reproductive Freedom. (P. 47). Praeger, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3
Pro-Lies. (n.d.). Heartbeat International - Pro-Lies.org: Extreme. toxic. out of touch. Pro-lies.org. https://pro-lies.org/heartbeat-international/
Norris, S. (2020, February 17). “you could die and turn your husband gay”. how I learned to talk women out of legal abortions. openDemocracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/you-could-die-and-turn-your-husband-gay-how-i-learned-to-talk-women-out-of-legal-abortions/
Ehrlich, J. S., & Doan, A. E. (2019). The Evolving Legal Status of Abortion, in Abortion regret: The new attack on Reproductive Freedom. (P. 47). Praeger, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Yvonne Lindgren, The Fathers' Veto and Fatherhood as Property, 101 N.C. L. REV. 81 (2022). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol101/iss1/3