When Maxwell Frost took the stage at a Saturday morning rally in support of abortion rights in Florida, the 27-year-old congressman quickly explained why he showed up.
“I am so proud to be here as an ally and partner in this fight!” he shouted to the crowd of about 100 strong who had gathered in the courtyard of an Orlando church, holding handwritten songs with messages like “abortion bans are killing us” and “uterus forceps clan is nothing to fuck with.”
His birth mother had given him up for adoption, said Frost, who wore a black T-shirt that read “Abortion is Healthcare.” “What made it sacred was the fact that she had a choice,” Frost said. “I’m tired of people trying to use parts of all our identities to take away other people’s freedoms.”
The crowd – mostly women – roared in response.
In an election in which women’s access to abortion has become a top issue, activists are now rushing to convince men that they too have a stake in the fight – and that they should vote accordingly next Tuesday.
Although men support abortion rights to the same extent as women, they appear much less passionate about the issue. Less than half of men identify as “pro-choice,” according to Gallupand they are much more likely to consider the economy or immigration as their main problem. One survey of men of color found that while more than 80% believe abortion should be legal, less than half prioritized candidates who supported abortion rights.
“There’s a common misconception that abortion is a women’s issue,” said Zach Rivera, a 24-year-old activist with Men4Choice, a national group dedicated to encouraging men to support abortion rights.
In recent weeks, Rivera has spent countless hours in Florida neighborhoods supporting Amendment 4, a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution and overturn the state’s ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy. Nine other states will also vote on similar ballot measures on Election Day, but Amendment 4 could face the biggest odds. To pass, the measure must win 60% of the vote in a state that has moved sharply to the right in recent years and whose state government has repeatedly tried to pressure the campaign behind the amendment.
Recent opinion polls have shown that support for measures hovers somewhere around 50%: while one poll found that 58% of Florida voters support it, another closer to 54%. In the latter poll, 55% of women supported the measure, compared to 53% of men. In an election as close as Florida’s, encouraging more men to vote yes could mean the difference between victory and defeat.
As Saturday morning gave way to a humid afternoon punctuated by rain showers, Rivera trudged from house to house in a wealthy, blue neighborhood of Orlando, delivering Men4Choice stickers and trying to talk to voters about Amendment 4. Scores of homes had blue ‘Harris ‘ stickers. /Walz” signs in their front yards – but none had a purple “Yes on 4” sign. The voters did not dare to talk about it. “I’m friends with everyone,” said one woman.
Rivera has had better luck, he said, with phone banking. In a recent conversation, Rivera described how he urged a reluctant man to think about his future wife and children: What if his wife died ten years later because an abortion ban denied her access to medical care? How would he reveal to his children that he didn’t vote?
“The whole point of this movement is to think about the future you,” Rivera recalled telling him. The man, Rivera said, decided to vote for Amendment 4.
At an early voting location in Tampa, 24-year-old Brandon McCray listed women’s rights as one of his top concerns in the 2024 election. It helped convince him to vote for Kamala Harris. “Amendment 4 would actually protect many women,” he said. According to him, banning abortion is “the greatest violation of a human right”.
McCray may be a relative anomaly among his peers. Shocked by Donald Trump’s triple victory in the 2016 election, the sexual violence exposed by the #MeToo movement in late 2017, and the overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022, young women are the most progressive cohort ever recorded in American history – but young men have moved to the right. While 62% of young women now support Harris, 55% of young men support Donald Trump, This is evident from a recent New York Times poll. Additionally, young men’s participation in politics is declining, with young women now on track to vote, gather and donate more often.
For many young women, the trend is so obvious as to be unremarkable. “Right-wingers have more traditional values, and more traditional values tend to favor men more than women,” says Briana Valle, 22. “For obvious reasons, people will always go for what benefits them.”
Leila Wotruba (22) added: “There is much more at stake for women.”
As a gay man, Rivera knows it doesn’t seem like much is at stake in the fight over abortion rights. But Rivera sees the future of the issue, especially in Florida, as a “litmus test” for other rights.
“That’s what I tell people: Even though this may not be a personal issue for you in general… you’re definitely next,” he said. “They’re just waiting until there’s no one left to defend you.”