A new bill that would make masturbation unlawful if the act was done without the intention on procreating has been put forward.
There have been many changes regarding women’s reproductive rights in the US in recent years — the biggest being the overturning Roe V. Wade ruling in 2022, which dated back to 1973.
But American men have faced limit constraints in regards to their reproductive rights, but this proposed bill could change all that.
Titled ‘The Contraception Begins At Erection Act’, the act would make it illegal for a man to masturbate if it was done with no intention of conceiving a baby; i.e if it wasn’t for a sperm sample that was needed for IVF.
A summary of the bill reads: “This bill, known as the ‘Contraception Begins at Erection Act,’ proposes to make it unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material (sperm) without the intent to fertilize an embryo, effectively criminalizing certain male reproductive behaviors.”
Such ‘male reproductive behaviors’ wouldn’t land a man any jail time, however. Instead the bill proposes that they be hit with a cash fine.
On the first offense it would be $1,000, which would be raised to $5,000 for a second offense. From the third time onwards, the individual would have to fork out $10,000.
Of course, the bill comes with its exceptions.
The bill was proposed by Mississippi lawmaker Bradford Blackmon (Bradford Blackmon/Facebook)
“The bill includes two key exceptions: genetic material donated or sold to a facility for future embryo fertilization, and genetic material discharged using a contraceptive method intended to prevent fertilization,” it explains.
The ‘Contraception Begins at Erection Act’, which has been sponsored by Mississippi lawmaker Bradford Blackmon, would come into force on July 1, 2025, if signed into law bu Gov. Tate Reeves.
Speaking to WLBT, Blackmon noted that many bills regarding reproductive rights are often targeted at women.
“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 fifty percent of the equation,” he wrote, as per 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.”
He later wrote in a press statement on Facebook that the filing was made to point out the ‘double standard’, adding: “You have male-dominated legistures in Mississippi and all over the country that pass laws that dictate what a woman can and cannot do with her body.
“When a bill has been filed that would regulate what a man is able to do with his own body in his own home, it suddenly has people in an uproar … men are not held to the same standard when it comes to the intrusion into their personal private affairs as women.
Mississippi is one of the 12 states in America that has total or near-total bans on abortion, while an addition six states ban abortion from six to 12 weeks of gestation.
Other countries outside the US to have limitations on abortion include Iraq, Egypt, Madagascar, and Haitai, Time reported in 2022.