This article was first published on Medium.
The struggle for reproductive freedom and the struggle for trans rights are not just interlinked; they’re the same fight.
Both are struggles for bodily autonomy. Both are directly opposed to a patriarchy that ascribes roles to people based on how their bodies were born.
The right of trans people to transition — whatever that looks like for them — and to present themselves however they choose is the right to be free of oppression rooted in misogyny and gender-policing.
As a trans man, I face all the same struggles a cis woman does with regard to pregnancy, compounded with the very real dangers of severe dysphoria and a systemically transphobic medical system.
Pregnant transmasculine people must stop their hormone replacement therapy, which for many of us is life-saving medicine. Forced birth forces us into this temporary detransition while putting us through something that for many is an unbearably dysphoric experience about which we have nightmares.
On top of that, pregnancy care is frequently transphobic, often treating pregnant people who look male with disrespect and disgust, ranging from constant misgendering to refusal of service. This is traumatic on its face, and it can also be deadly when it results in poor care.
Transmasculine, nonbinary, and intersex people capable of becoming pregnant don’t want to be included in the abortion conversation out of vanity. We want to be included because we are at extreme risk of trauma, abuse, and death.
And transfeminine, nonbinary, and intersex people unable to become pregnant are stalwart allies in the fight for abortion rights because they also know what it is to be denied the right to bodily autonomy.
Our struggles against gender-based oppression are one and the same, and we’re strongest when we stand together against it.