I would feel a lot more comfortable about all the states that have lately passed new highly restrictive abortion laws, along with the other states just waiting for Supreme Court’s shoe to drop, if we weren’t just talking about women.

Men, the last time I checked, also have a role to play in the reproduction game.

You may remember men. They’re the guys long on both passion and promises eager to make a down payment on a life of future connubial bliss with a woman whose level of trust in the negotiations may momentarily exceed the warranted level of confidence necessary given the facts at hand.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected within the next few weeks. Meanwhile, 13 states, including Idaho and Utah, have so-called “trigger” laws in effect. These already-passed abortion-ending bills are set to become law the minute Roe v. Wade vanishes.

In previous columns, I’ve stated that I am not a fan of abortions for both religious and personal reasons. But I realize that the decision to have an abortion is extraordinarily personal and not subject to one-size-fits-all boiler-plate pronouncements.

Meanwhile, you and I, sitting in our comfortable kitchens on Sunday morning, tsk-tsk the whole thing, with that ugliest of platitudes: If she didn’t want to get pregnant, she should have kept her knees together.

Well, in a few weeks it may not matter much what we think while safely wrapped in our personal cocoons. The law will be the law, the women involved will pay the price, and the men, as always, will have the freedom to continue fishing, or simply cut bait.

This, of course, is nothing new. Men have been cutting bait for as long as there’s suddenly too much tension on the fishing line. And in the old days, who could say who was at fault? The woman who succumbed to male ardency could suddenly find herself proclaimed a tainted multi-partner trollop in the public square by the same guy who was ready to lasso the moon for her just six weeks earlier.

But today that’s all changed. Paternity tests are as accurate as they are commonplace. If we’re going to force women to pay the price of an unwanted pregnancy, then we should divide the costs with the other half of the mating equation.

But so far, I haven’t heard of a single legislature moving in this direction. I’ve also noticed that the state legislators who would be writing these laws are still overwhelmingly male, although I’m sure this is just coincidence.

I’d also be much more comfortable with abortion restrictions if significantly more post-delivery support was made available to women who went full-term without the prospects or desire to keep the child.

This would involve large investments in adoption support services. If society choses to limit abortions, it must be much more willing to support the end result: more live births.

Perhaps you know someone looking to adopt. If so, you know the struggles they face. Brutally high costs. Dismally poor supply.

It has always baffled me that people who claim to be pro-life often seem to lose interest once the child is born. Restrict abortion? Sure. Support the child (and mother) with post-pregnancy health, education and adoption services? No thanks. My taxes are high enough.

None of this is the child’s fault, by the way. We can complain all we want how awful it is that people have sex before marriage, that men are too-often happy to lie about their undying devotion to the woman of the month in order to you-know-what, that women without support can be forced into decisions that will predictably make them lifelong takers in society instead of givers — none of this is the fault of child, who arrives simple, pure and greatly in need of devoted love, nourishment and a steady, gentle, guiding hand.

If we truly want to help these children whose fetal beginnings are under less-than-ideal conditions, then we must do more than just fight to get them out of the womb. We must fight to get them launched into life in a way that offers the best hope that they will be givers, not takers, in our demanding world.

And men must shoulder half the responsibility.

Chris Huston is an author and award-winning columnist living in southern Idaho. Connect with Chris on both Facebook and Instagram at Chris Huston-Finding My Way and at chrishustonauthor.com.