In Part 1, I relayed a conversation I had with a man on an airplane who recited the standard line about abortion being a “woman’s choice” to justify his lack of opinion on the matter.

I expressed my recent conviction about how wrong this perspective is, as well as my growing frustration with men who shirk their responsibility to speak up for the vulnerable.

To set the stage for my conviction, I argued that abortion is not a cute political issue—it is a full-blown cultural, political, and spiritual war. Millions of lives hang in the balance.

More babies died last year from just the abortion pill than all U.S. military deaths from World War I, and World War II, and the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War, and Iraq-related operations, and Afghanistan-related operations, combined.

And we’ve managed to cram well over 60 million abortions into the last half century.

I also argued that when the vulnerable are being slaughtered, men have the primary responsibility to fight for them. God has particularly designed men to protect.

Yes, both men and women should throw all their weight into the fight for unborn life, but it’s especially abominable for men to shirk that duty. But that’s exactly what men do when they brush off abortion as a “women’s issue.” Horribly wrong.

Abortion is a men’s issue if there ever was one.

I realize my thesis might be controversial even in some pro-life circles, so here are a few more thoughts to flesh it out before you issue your final verdict.

Flash back to my airborne conversation from Part 1. Recall how Joe didn’t think abortion was his problem because it was a “women’s issue.” That’s odd. That’s eerily similar to what boyfriends will say to sidewalk counselors to excuse themselves after they drop off their girlfriends at the clinic.

“I dunno, man, it’s her choice…” Every one of us should recognize the absolute failure of masculine responsibility in a father who washes his hands clean of his child’s blood because his child is somehow only the mother’s responsibility.

And so, albeit to a lesser degree, shouldn’t we recognize the failure of masculine responsibility in any man who washes his conscience clean of the carnage happening around him because it’s somehow the other sex’s responsibility?

If a boyfriend is shirking his responsibility by calling it a “woman’s choice,” then any man anywhere is shirking his responsibility by calling it a “women’s issue.” Let’s be clear on one thing—any issue that involves mass killing by the millions is a men’s issue from the get-go.

Men cannot afford to stay out.

Now, please don’t get me wrong.

This is not to despise or downplay the role that amazing women have played in the pro-life movement. From Phyllis Schlafly to Abby Johnson to Lila Rose, God has worked mightily through outstanding women to further the fight for life.

My point right now is not that it’s a problem that so many women are concerned for the unborn—it’s a problem that so many men think it’s not their concern. The judgment falls on the men who shirk responsibility, not on the women who step up to fill the gap the men left.

After all, God did work mightily through Deborah, for example (Judges 4:4). But even Deborah told Barak to go fight Sisera (Judges 4:6). Then Barak failed to act like a man (Judges 4:8), so God gave the victory to a woman (Judges 4:9).

The biblical norm is that men step up for the fight. When the men don’t, women will often fill in and God will work through them instead.

But that’s a condemnation on the men who failed their responsibility.

Yet, wait a second. Doesn’t the very nature of abortion indicate that this has to be a woman’s issue in some sense? Only women can get abortions, after all. Even for basic PR purposes, wouldn’t it be a lot more effective to have women be the face of the pro-life movement, so we don’t seem like a bunch of oppressive men trying to subjugate women?

And what about the sensitive nature of pregnancy—how many women are going to want to talk to a male sidewalk counselor about their intimate reproductive choices?

Those are decent points, but I don’t think any of them are significant enough objections. Yes, only women can get abortions, but no woman can get pregnant without a man.

On a basic biological level, abortion is inescapably a man’s issue. The PR point is a legitimate point to raise, but it wrongly evaluates our strategy based on what our enemies will think of us. Why not frame it as a bunch of heroic, valiant men rushing to the rescue of innocent babies?

You never conduct wars based on your enemies’ feelings. At least not when millions of lives are at stake.

Finally, yes, the sidewalk counseling point is very valid. Let me be clear: not every single role in the pro-life movement is one that is optimally performed by men. However, even in the sensitive case of sidewalk counseling, you’d be surprised at the way God can use men to save lives.

Andrew Kerin of Tiny Heartbeat Ministries—whose insight inspired much of what I’m saying in these two articles—has pointed out that most women going into the clinic are doing so because they don’t have godly men in their lives.

They don’t have men who are willing to tell them the truth and hold them back from evil. The men in their lives are usually losers. And you’d be surprised how positively a woman can respond to a godly, compassionate, male sidewalk counselor.

So what’s the point of all this? At the very minimum, American men need to care. It’s supremely ironic that every man who’s ever said that abortion is a woman’s issue, and thus washed himself clean of any opinion on the matter, spent his own first nine months in a womb.

There’s no excuse for a man voting “pro-choice” because he thinks he can’t have an opinion. Or doesn’t need to have one.

But that’s still the very minimum. American men need to care, but they need to do more than just care.

“Caring” doesn’t win wars. There are pregnancy resource centers to open, sidewalk counseling teams to form, public education to promulgate, and legal battles to be won. And all of that requires financial support.

American men need conviction, and then they need to take that conviction to the battlefield.

Ultimately, the fight for abortion must be treated like a real fight.

And real fights call for real men.

I believe God is looking for at least a few good men. Are you one of them?