Men’s Reproductive Rights and Other Fantasies

Back in the 60’s, when I was about 15 or 16, I read an article about vasectomies. My father and step-mother were two of the most unsuited-for-parenthood humans who ever lived and by the time I was 17 I was pretty certain those genes had been passed on to me; and, most likely, my siblings.. Like most college kids of my generation, I had a health insurance policy that was an add-on to my tuition and I asked a local doctor for information about how I might go about getting a vasectomy. He wouldn’t even discuss the possibility and even told my father what I’d asked him. Telling my father wasn’t as much of a deal as it could have been, but by then I had been living on my own for a couple of years and my father’s outrage, if there was any, wouldn’t have been particularly influential or important to me. However, I did feel totally disrespected by that doctor and have not been a big fan of American medicine (one of the world’s most cynical oxymorons) since.

While I was looking for something completely different, I stumbled on this Chicago Tribune article, “Young, Single Men Choosing Vasectomies.” I sort of hoped that times had changed and that meant men were being allowed as much reproductive freedom as women have today. I was wrong.

This piece of “information” was presented pretty early in the article,, “’While any man older than 18 can legally get a vasectomy, doctors can turn men down if they don't believe them to be mature or sure enough of their future plans.

“’I received a call from an 18-year-old high schooler, and that was a no-no,’ said Dr. Arif Agha, owner of the Vasectomy and Reversal Center of Chicago, in Oak Brook, Ill.”

Seriously? A doctor who uses the phrase “a no-no” is considered adult enough to make decisions for other men? That half-wit shouldn’t be allowed to play with butter knives.

The article pretty much established that nothing significant has changed in at least the last 50 years. In 1973, after our 2nd child was born, I found a urologist in Amarillo, Texas who would at least interview me about the possibility of a vasectomy. Most likely, my wife would have continued popping out babies until it was no longer possible, but I was working 80-100 hours a week to provide for our family, pay the hospital bills, and keep the rest of the wolves at bay. Any life I had visualized for myself at that point was clearly in the pipedream category, but I needed to gain some control of how far down that rabbit hole I could be driven. What I learned in that interview was that, according to the doctor, Texas law would allow him to perform the operation if I had already fathered two children (check), I could get my wife’s written permission (maybe checked), and she would be present at his office the day of the surgery to ensure her agreement.

I have two brilliant daughters and one brilliant granddaughter. In many ways, because of them I have been a “feminist” all of my life. However, when it comes to issues like birth control and abortion, I’m on the sidelines. If men can’t decide their own reproductive fates, mostly due to idiot arguments like the claim that young men are five times more likely to want a reversal surgery than are men over 50 (even those the total number who do want that surgery is below 5%), I’ll wait till this is an equal opportunity debate. Still today, “while any man older than 18 can legally get a vasectomy, doctors can turn men down if they don't believe them to be mature or sure enough of their future plans.” When characters like Agha and his ilk are allowed to decide when another man is “mature,” men are not on anything resembling equal footing with women’s reproductive rights.

I recently discovered that Planned Parenthood facilities, occasionally, provide vasectomy services. Disgustingly, the Affordable Care Act requires most insurance plans cover birth control with no out-of-pocket costs, but that does NOT include vasectomies. Supposedly, some plans do provide minimal coverage, but I couldn’t find any evidence of that in Minnesota, for example. The Rochester, MN (home of the Mayo Clinic) PP offices provide no services for men. There are several facilities in Minneapolis/St. Paul that offer “Men’s Health” services, but drilling down into the websites of those specific facilities I found no evidence that vasectomies were among those “services.” I would love to be a contributor to Planned Parenthood’s mission. I am a member of the Zero Population organization and absolutely believe that the average human’s reproduction has nothing of value to offer to either the species or the planet. There are eight billion of us now, which is about seven billion more than the planet can sustain. I asked Planned Parenthood if it is possible to commit a contribution to men’s reproductive services and received a solid “no.”

Repeated studies have found that “Although children in the house make men less happy, just being a father has no appreciable impact on men's happiness.” Women are equally (or more) unlikely to be happy as mothers. That pretty much flies in the face of the propaganda men are fed about the “fulfillment” of being a parent. There are societal interests in reproduction, but individual interests are being steamrolled for those interests and the fact is that the overwhelming majority of humans (men and women) are lousy parents and should not be allowed to be occasional babysitters, let alone parents. Until both sexes have complete control of their reproductive rights, it is delusional of society to imagine that children are going to be wanted, happy, and secure in their homes and the costs of that are astronomical.