{"id":218565,"date":"2020-02-14T14:21:53","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T20:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=218565"},"modified":"2020-02-14T14:21:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T20:21:53","slug":"alabama-abortions-vasectomies-misses-biological-fact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/alabama-abortions-vasectomies-misses-biological-fact\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama lawmaker tries to equate abortions with vasectomies, misses crucial biological fact"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Alabama lawmaker has introduced a bill that would force men to get vasectomies, at their own expense, once they turn 50 or have three children. HB238<\/a> was written by State Rep. Rolanda Hollis as a direct response to the abortion law passed last year<\/a>. Why? To punish men. \u201cThe vasectomy bill is… to neutralize the abortion ban bill…. It always takes two to tango,” Hollis said in an interview with AL.com<\/a>. \u201cWe can\u2019t put all the responsibility on women. Men need to be responsible also.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn’t the first time a lawmaker has introduced<\/a> a tone-deaf bill<\/a>\u00a0supposedly meant to restrict men’s “reproductive rights.”<\/p>\n

The bill itself is clearly meant to make a statement, and is wrong on multiple levels. So what’s the main issue that lawmakers always seem to miss with this and similar legislation? It’s this:<\/p>\n

A vasectomy is in no way the same as an\u00a0abortion<\/a>, because a vasectomy does not kill an already-conceived human being.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The choice to be sterilized does not involve taking the life of an already-conceived human being<\/em>. A sperm cell, or an unfertilized egg, is not the same thing as a preborn child. Whether that child is a zygote, an embryo, a fetus, a newborn, or a toddler, he is — at all stages —\u00a0a living human being.<\/p>\n

No one has banned tubal ligations or birth control; a law along those lines would be closer to a female equivalent of the proposed bill. And no woman is forced<\/em> to be sterilized against her will (although, thanks to the eugenic philosophy that birthed Planned Parenthood, women have<\/em> been forcibly\u00a0sterilized in the past<\/a>).<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Indigenous women in Canada say they were sterilized without their consent<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n