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Last year Alabama’s abortion law became one of the most restrictive in the country by introducing the Alabama Human Life Protection Act. That act made the abortion procedure prohibited in nearly every circumstance. A federal court blocked the law from taking effect later in the year, but abortion is still very touchy subject in the state.
Now, an Alabama state lawmaker introduced a bill that would require men to get a vasectomy after their 50th birthday. “A man, at his own expense, shall undergo a vasectomy within one month of his 50th birthday or the birth of his third biological child, whichever comes first,” the bill reads.
According to the lawmaker, that measure would help “neutralizing” abortion restrictions in the state. “The Vasectomy bill is to help with the reproductive system. This is to neutralize the abortion ban bill,” State Rep. Rolanda Hollis wrote in the tweet. “The responsibility is not always on the women. It takes two to tango. This will help prevent pregnancy as well as abortion of unwanted children,” she added.
State Rep. Rolanda Hollis sponsored the bill that would also require all men in the state to undergo the procedure after their third child. The legislation says that a man will have to pay for the vasectomy “at his own expense." The bill further states, “Under existing law, there are no restrictions on the reproductive rights of men.”
Rep. Hollis describes herself as neither pro-choice nor anti-abortion: “I do not believe that women should use abortion as a birth control, but I do believe that if a woman is raped or if it’s incest or anything like that, then she has the choice to do what she wants to do.” This bill probably wouldn't become the law but the bill sponsor wants to show how it is contrary to human rights to control anyone’s body as they always do when it comes to abortion.
Rep. Hollis is not the first Alabama representative to use a proposed bill to make a point about reproductive freedom. In a similar fashion to Hollis, state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, tried to address what she saw as hypocrisy on the abortion ban bill by adding an amendment making it a felony for a man to have a vasectomy. The amendment failed.
She said back then: “You don’t have to raise that child. You don’t have to carry that child. You don’t have to provide for that child. You don’t have to do anything for that child. You want to make that decision for that woman that that’s what she has to do.”
