New Alabama bill would force men to get vasectomy at age 50 or after a third child
An Alabama lawmaker has introduced a bill that would require men to get a vasectomy within the first month after their 50th birthday or after the birth of their third child.
State Rep. Rolanda Hollis, a Democrat from Birmingham, introduced the bill on Thursday.
“Under existing law, there are no restrictions on the reproductive rights of men,” the bill states. It would “require a man to undergo a vasectomy within one month of his 50th birthday or the birth of his third biological child, whichever comes first.” The man would also have to pay for it on his own.
Hollis told McClatchy News that the bill is in response to anti-abortion legislation passed in Alabama.
“This is to neutralize the abortion ban bill,” Hollis said. “The responsibility is not always on the woman — it takes two to tango. This is to prevent pregnancy and the abortion of unwanted children and to help men become accountable as well as women.
“You don’t think about what women have to go through as far as incest and rape, but you want them to carry a kid out of rape or incest so let’s neutralize it,” she continued.
The Alabama abortion law bans abortion in “nearly all instances,” and doctors who perform abortions would face up to 99 years in prison and a felony charge, according to The Hill.
A federal judge blocked the legislation in October 2019, the month before it was supposed to go into effect, according to The New York Times. Several states have passed similar restrictive abortion laws in what some see as a challenge to Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion up to a certain point.
“I am pro-life and I am pro-choice and what I mean by that is I don’t believe in abortion as a birth control, but I believe if a woman is raped or there’s incest or health reasons, then they [should] have a choice,” Hollis said. “I’m reading some of the things people are saying and I see the hypocrisy. It’s OK to tell a woman what to do with her body but it’s not OK to tell a man what to do with his.”
The next step for the bill is to go to a committee for review, according to Hollis.
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 10:20 PM.