Forced vasectomies?

Richard A. Sokerka

In Alabama, one of America’s most pro-life states, a state representative has introduced a bill in the state legislature that would require men of a certain age or state to have a vasectomy.

The legislation is the brainchild of Democrat Rep. Rolanda Hollis. Her bill provides that a man must undergo a vasectomy “at his own expense” within one month of his 50th birthday or the birth of his third child, “whichever comes first.”

Her bill’s aim “is to neutralize the abortion ban bill” and “help men become more accountable as well as women” in family planning decisions. The “abortion ban bill” she references is Alabama’s “Human Life Protection Act,” passed by the state legislature last year and signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey. The law outlaws abortion except in “cases where abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother.” The law also made performing or assisting in an abortion a felony offense for medical professionals. Doc­tors performing abortions could be charged with a Class A felony and face up to 10 years in prison.

The law garnered the support of Bishop Robert Baker of Birmingham and he expressed his hope to “eventually, make the killing of unborn children in our country something that is no longer viewed as anything but the horrendous and inhumane killing of the most innocent among us that it is.”

But last October, a federal judge blocked the law from going into effect.

With the law blocked by the judiciary at the moment, why would this state representative try to pass legislation that obviously is an affront to our religious liberty? The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2399 lists sterilization as one of the “morally unacceptable” means of the regulation of births, along with contraception.

To force men to get a vasectomy is something we would expect to see out of the rulers of Communist China, not Alabama. This legislation should be summarily dismissed by the legislature.