Contrary to popular belief, abortion is not a women’s issue. It’s true that women are most often the people accessing abortion, and that women are most often the ones speaking up about abortion. But reproductive justice extends well beyond any individual herself. 

Instead, abortion is an economic issue, a racial issue, a healthcare issue, a labor issue, an immigration issue, a family issue. Abortion is, crucially, also a men’s issue—especially after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. 

“If you think about men in this country, for two full generations with Roe being in place, there was never a need for men to really become educated around what reproductive healthcare actually is and what it means for a pregnancy,” Josh Zurawski told Abortion in America, an abortion storytelling platform that highlights the impact of abortion bans on everyone’s lives. Zurawski’s wife, Amanda Zurawski, nearly died in 2022 because she couldn’t access abortion care. “Sharing our story, you quickly realize how many men are out there who are under the age of 60 that just have no idea how important this healthcare is.”

Zurawski and men like him are doing their part to spread the word. Four men shared their abortion stories with Abortion in America. Here, we’re amplifying those stories.  

Cody Cunningham

Hollie Cunningham never expected to have an abortion, never mind two. When Hollie and her husband Cody learned their fetuses likely wouldn’t survive in two subsequent pregnancies, the pair were devastated. They quickly realized Hollie needed an abortion for her health, but Texas’s extreme abortion bans compounded that devastation, forcing the couple to seek abortions out of state. They “easily spent over $10,000 on the abortion and travel that we had to do for our baby girl,” Hollie told Abortion in America. The ordeal was difficult mentally and physically for Hollie, but it took a toll on Cody, too. Now, he works to educate fellow Texans about reproductive freedom—a mission he sees as similar to his fight for freedom as a Marine. 

“We had to go to a different state, we had to go to a clinic that we didn’t know anything about. I couldn’t go in the clinic to help her out and to support my own wife. It was tough. Having a Marine mindset, because I signed my life away and I fought for my country, so I get everyone having their rights and that’s basically what [my wife and I are] fighting for, too. We want our rights back, because this could happen to anyone.”

“My mindset before on this, out of sight out of mind. People don’t think stuff like this will happen to them. Fast forward to now, you’re in the midst of all the craziness that’s going on with you at the time and it changes your perspective on things. I don’t think people truly understand unless they’re put in that situation.” 

Hope Ngumezi

Hope Ngumezi’s wife, Porsha Ngumezi, died in 2023 after experiencing a miscarriage and being denied necessary abortion care. When she started bleeding at 11 weeks pregnant, the couple went to the emergency room at Houston Methodist Sugar Land. The bleeding didn’t stop. According to ProPublica, Hope called his mother, a doctor, who said Porsha needed dilation and curettage (D&C), an abortion procedure that removes fetal tissue from the uterus and would stop the bleeding. Porsha never got the care she needed, and she died of hemorrhage. Now, Hope is educating other men in hopes that no one else experiences this gut-wrenching, preventable loss.

“Honestly I didn’t even know what a D&C was. It was something I was not knowledgeable about. If something was to happen, we thought we would be taken care of. I don’t wish this on nobody. I don’t wish this on my enemy. What happened to Porsha was devastating, and the way it happened, knowing that it was preventable, is even worse.”

“My why is to let people in to understand my story, to see what I’ve went through so it can push them to educate themselves and just be aware of what you’re dealing with in Texas, or any state that has an abortion law.

Josh Zurawski

You may have heard Amanda Zurawski’s story before. When her water broke at 18 weeks pregnant in 2022 because of a condition that meant her fetus wouldn’t survive, doctors in her home state of Texas couldn’t do anything for Amanda. Instead, they told her they had to wait until her life was in danger to perform an abortion on her—and that’s exactly what happened. Amanda developed sepsis, a life-threatening infection, that nearly killed her and left one of her fallopian tubes permanently damaged. This all happened the same week that Texas’s most draconian abortion bans took effect, so Amanda sued the state in a case that the Supreme Court ultimately ruled against. 

Amanda wasn’t alone through this; her husband Josh was by her side. He opened up to Abortion in America about what every man should know about abortion.

“Men are going to need to be the ones to figure out that they are in this fight. The burden just can’t be on women. It’s not going to change things if that’s the case.” 

“I have friends at work who work in Texas. They tell me they’re excited that they’re going to have their first [child], or maybe it’s their second but it’s the first since the Texas ban went into place. I think one of the things that’s really scary is to have to tell my friends that, you actually should be prepared for what happens if something goes wrong. You need to be prepared to go out of state, you need to be prepared to be in a situation like us, where something could go really wrong and you can’t leave. Be prepared for those situations as well.”

Marcus Brandt

Raised in a Catholic household by a pro-life mother, Marcus Brandt and his wife, Ashley, were scared to tell Marcus’s mom that Ashley needed an abortion. The couple, who had been married for 10 years and had one child, became pregnant with twins in 2022. Soon, however, they learned that one of the twins had a fatal diagnosis. Their options were grim, most of which risked the life and health of the other twin, too. So, the pair opted for abortion, traveling out of state to access care. 

Ultimately, Marcus’s mom was supportive of the couple. He and his mom sat down with Abortion in America to discuss her pro-life stance—and she kind of changed her mind. Here are Marcus’s thoughts.

“Abortion slightly hurts to say, but that’s because of how I was raised, in a deeply Catholic household. It shouldn’t hurt to say because it’s healthcare. I guess I find it slightly contradictory to say that what we did was OK, which was absolutely necessary, but a single woman, or someone who can’t afford [a child], or someone who’s in an abusive relationship, they can’t do it.”

“Every woman, every healthy, consensual couple, should be able to—and ultimately the woman—should be able to have that choice. In our instance, Ashley and I talked about several times, to some people maybe, I could see holding your dying child, as horrible as that would be, maybe to them it’s cathartic, and that’s the goodbye that they need. But to us, to Ashley and I, that was never acceptable.”