Abortion is typically seen as a woman's issue because women are typically the people getting pregnant. However, women are not the only people who can get pregnant. Trans men, non-binary people, gender fluid people, gender non-conforming people, etc. can all get pregnant as well as long as they have the right reproductive organs.

A lot of people get left out of the abortion talk. When people discuss abortions, either for or against it, they only talk about women. These issues are not exclusive to one gender. They extend to so many other people across a wide range of genders. It is already harder for people outside of the binary genders to get the healthcare they deserve because the government does not typically support us having access to gender-affirming healthcare, but now it is about abortions too.

Most healthcare providers are not trained to deal with a man or gender non-conforming person needing an abortion. In these situations, they are likely to misgender the person in need of a service and cause a lot more mental and emotional trauma than what they are already going through. We all know that the US healthcare system is fucked up to begin with, but this is just another issue that is barely being talked about.

It is so amazing that so many people are fighting to give cisgender women the right to have access to safe abortions when they need them, but this fight needs to be extended to the trans and non-binary community as well. Without extending the efforts to gender non-conforming people then we are not really solving any of the problems, we're only making them worse because we are allowing safe abortions for some people but not all people.

So, next time abortion is brought up make sure you think about people other than cisgender women. Their rights are extremely important and they should be in control of what happens to their bodies, but so should other people who have the ability to get pregnant.

If you or anyone you know needs to talk about options for an unplanned pregnancy please reach out and find a Planned Parenthood near you. You can find your nearest Planned Parenthood here.