SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
contraception
Dem Lawmakers Introduce 'Contraception Begins at Erection' Bills in Multiple States
"If you think it's absurd to regulate men, then you should think it's equally absurd to regulate women," said the author of an Ohio bill, who is also an OB-GYN.
Feb 11, 2025
Faced with relentless Republican attacks on reproductive freedom including efforts to give embryos and fetuses legal rights from the moment of conception, Democratic lawmakers in two states have recently introduced legislation that would ban men from ejaculating for purposes other than making babies, with some exceptions.
Last month, Mississippi state Sen. Bradford Blackmon (D-21) introduced S.B. 2319, the Contraception Begins at Erection Act, which would "make it unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material (sperm) without the intent to fertilize an embryo, effectively criminalizing certain male reproductive behaviors," according to an official artificial intelligence summary of the proposal. The bill—which died in committee last week—contains exceptions for "genetic material donated or sold to a facility for future embryo fertilization, and genetic material discharged using a contraceptive method intended to prevent fertilization."
"If you're going to penalize someone for an unwanted pregnancy, why not penalize the person who is also responsible for the pregnancy?"
"All across the country, especially here in Mississippi, the vast majority of bills relating to contraception and/or abortion focus on the woman's role when men are 50% of the equation," Blackmon explained, according to NBC News. "This bill highlights that fact and brings the man's role into the conversation. People can get up in arms and call it absurd but I can't say that bothers me."
Meanwhile in Ohio, state Reps. Dr. Anita Somani (D-11) and Tristan Rader (D-13) have introduced their own Contraception Begins at Erection Act, which would fine violators $10,000 per unauthorized discharge, with exceptions for when contraception is used during sex, or in cases of masturbation, and sex between members of the LGBTQ+ community.
"If you're going to penalize someone for an unwanted pregnancy, why not penalize the person who is also responsible for the pregnancy?" Somani, who is also a licensed OB-GYN, asked in an Ohio Capital Journal article published Sunday. "You don't get pregnant on your own."
Every Sperm is sacred! #equalrights #reproductiverights
[image or embed]
— Anita Somani District 8 OH ( @anitamd.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Responding to Republicans who have called her bill "absurd," Somani said, "If you think it's absurd to regulate men, then you should think it's equally absurd to regulate women."
While observers have questioned the seriousness of these bills—and with Somani and others giving nods to a famous number in Monty Python's 1983 black comedy The Meaning of Life—they come at a nadir for reproductive freedom in the United States.
Since the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court canceled half a century of federal abortion rights in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, a dozen states including Mississippi have also passed near-total abortion bans, while numerous other states have enacted restrictions on the procedure.
Eight states have also enacted or proposed restrictions on access to contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Last year, Senate Republicans blocked consideration of the Right to Contraception Act. Republican President Donald Trump has signaled support for federal restrictions on contraception, and far-right U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has suggested that the tribunal "should reconsider" past rulings upholding the right to birth control.
In Ohio, voters decisively enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution via a 2023 ballot measure. Nevertheless, anti-abortion activists haven't given up—Republican activist Austin Beigel told the Capital Journal that GOP lawmakers are preparing to introduce legislation for a total abortion ban in the coming weeks.
"It just says human life begins at conception," he explained. "Therefore, all the protections that are offered to other people under the state law are also offered to the pre-born."
This isn't the first time that semi-satirical legislation has been introduced to highlight the hypocrisy of banning women from controlling their bodies. In 2019, a Democratic state lawmaker in Georgia introduced a "Testicular Bill of Rights" that would, among other things, have required men to get permission from their sexual partners before obtaining erectile dysfunction medication and enacted a 24-hour "waiting period" for men who want to buy porn or sex toys.
Correction: This article orginially said the "Every Sperm Is Sacred" song is from Monty Python's 1979 dark comedy The Life Of Brian. It is, in fact, from the 1983 Monty Python film The Meaning of Life. The author—who still considers The Holy Grail the finest comedy ever made—apologizes for the error.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Underscoring Election Stakes, Biden Admin Moves to Require Coverage of OTC Birth Control
"As Trump and his radical Republican allies restrict women's reproductive healthcare, today's action by the Biden-Harris administration shows there is a different path," said Sen. Ron Wyden.
Oct 21, 2024
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, suggested Monday that the Biden administration's newly proposed rule to expand access to over-the-counter birth control is the latest policy that underscores the stakes for reproductive justice in the 2024 election.
"While we fight to protect and expand healthcare, extremist so-called leaders are attacking reproductive freedom at every turn," said Harris.
The vice president was referring to a new rule under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) proposed by the administration to require insurers to cover all over-the-counter birth control, including the nonprescription birth control pill approved last year, emergency contraception, condoms, and spermicides.
The ACA requires health plans to cover contraception without copayments for patients, but the rule only applies to prescription birth control.
After the Food and Drug Administration approved Opill, a nonprescription birth control pill, last year, reproductive rights advocates and Democrats in Congress called on the Biden administration to make sure the pill would "meet its potential and be truly accessible."
"Federal departments must ensure that it is covered without cost-sharing and without the need for a prescription as a condition of coverage," said 48 Senate Democrats in a letter.
The Biden administration said that if the rule is finalized, it would expand access to 52 million women of reproductive age who have private health insurance.
"We should not forget that Republicans have consistently sought to undermine access to contraception and far-right extremists have even sought to limit access or even ban basic forms of contraception—this threat to our healthcare is real and serious."
"Birth control—and any kind of contraception—is just basic healthcare, and it should be covered and easy to get," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who authored the Affordability Is Access Act to require insurers to fully cover over-the-counter birth control. "Women in America should not have to jump through hoops to make sure insurance is covering their basic reproductive healthcare needs."
"We should not forget that Republicans have consistently sought to undermine access to contraception and far-right extremists have even sought to limit access or even ban basic forms of contraception—this threat to our healthcare is real and serious," added Murray. "While Republicans continue to attack standard and necessary forms of healthcare, Democrats will continue to fight to expand access to contraception and lower healthcare costs for everyone."
When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court—stacked with justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee—Justice Clarence Thomas said the court's finding that the "right to privacy" did not extend to abortion care could also be used to overturn a 1965 case that affirmed married couples had a right to use contraception.
Senate Republicans earlier this year blocked consideration of the Right to Contraception Act, and Trump has suggested he supports restrictions on birth control.
"As Trump and his radical Republican allies restrict women's reproductive healthcare, today's action by the Biden-Harris administration shows there is a different path: expanded access and lower costs for women's healthcare," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Monday. "I'm all in on the effort to ensure Americans across the country can get the reproductive healthcare they need without worrying about cost or prosecution by ideological crusaders."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Butker’s Misogynist Views Could Be Coming to a Legislature—or a White House—Near You
The MAGA movement led by Donald Trump is coming after contraception, abortion, and no-fault divorce.
May 28, 2024
One of the highlights, or maybe lowlights, of this commencement season, happened at Benedictine College in Kansas, where Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker made some unforgettable comments that quickly went viral.
Addressing women graduates, he said they were being told a “diabolical lie” about pursuing their dreams of a career, and that “the majority” of them would find their true purpose as wives and stay-at-home moms.
Butker is a kicker for the Chiefs, and women in the audience, who presumably had worked hard and paid a lot in tuition, could be forgiven if they felt like they were getting kicked around in that moment.
Americans are already losing our rights. We don’t like it. We’re deeply concerned about losing more of them.
But is Butker just one dude with some backward ideas? Is he just a fanboy for the “tradwife” craze happening on social media? (As some observers posit, it’s men, not women, who are the real audience for that content anyway.)
And why should we care what one pro athlete at one small college graduation says?
Because there’s too much evidence that Butker is not alone. His views are emblematic of not just one cultural attitude but a policy agenda that could be coming to a legislature—or even a White House—near you.
One of the best-known and most vocal antifeminists today is Nick Fuentes, who famously once said women should not work, vote, or be educated, and should wear veils in church. Fuentes has dined with Donald Trump, and his America First movement aims to infiltrate GOP infrastructure from the local level up.
Fuentes is an extremist among extremists. But he’s part of an increasingly vocal contingent promoting a vision of the past in which marriage was always between a man and a woman, where women always stayed home and cared for kids, and men always were breadwinners. In this idyllic past, there was practically no crime, domestic violence, or substance abuse.
And that’s the real “diabolical lie.”
Not only was that never how the world worked, but it was also a fantasy that caused desperation and pain for millions of people.
Another lie? That the social problems we have today are caused by the “breakup” of the so-called traditional family, which was set in motion by contraception, abortion, and no-fault divorce.
So now, the MAGA movement headed by Donald Trump is going after all those things.
Just days ago, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed a bill to protect access to contraception. The bill was considered an important test by advocates hoping to protect contraception in other states.
At the federal level, House Republicans have twice blocked a national Right to Contraception Act, which would have codified the right to access birth control.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is trying to walk back remarks he made saying he was “looking at” the issue of restricting access to contraceptives.
Perhaps most ominously, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has written that the court should revisit its decision establishing a right to contraception, as well as its rulings affirming same-sex marriage and relationships.
He did that at the same time the Supreme Court packed by Trump handed down its decision overturning Roe v. Wade, upending 50 years of legal abortion nationwide and setting the stage for a rash of state-level abortion bans.
Divorce is on the table, too. A number of MAGA politicians want to turn back the clock to the days before no-fault divorce, including several members of Congress and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, now a Trump campaign surrogate.
So while some argue that Butker should be ignored, that he’s just one ultrareligious guy giving a speech at an ultrareligious college, there’s a reason that his remarks struck a nerve among so many.
Americans are already losing our rights. We don’t like it. We’re deeply concerned about losing more of them.
And that’s legitimate. Donald Trump, a former president whose administration rolled back civil and human rights, is running again. His legacy is felt every day, including at the Supreme Court, which continues its cascade of harmful decisions.
There’s a good chance a second Trump term, run according to a Project 2025 blueprint that prescribes a “biblical” worldview to guide the federal government, would be worse.
So yes, in this environment it’s hard to shrug it off when you hear remarks like Butker’s. There are far too many people seeking power who think just like him.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular