Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion

by Gabrielle Stanley Blair

At eighty years old, a woman who menstruated for forty years will have experienced 480 days of fertility. At eighty years old, a man who hit puberty at age twelve will have experienced 24,208 days of fertility.

Men have two options for birth control: condoms and vasectomies. Both are easier, cheaper, more convenient, and safer than birth control options for women.

What condoms don’t have is a list of side effects. They don’t cause depression, mood swings, blood clots, liver failure, weight gain, acne, strokes, or anything else on the list of side effects for hormonal birth control.

We expect women to use their birth control perfectly, to remember to take the Pill daily, to keep up with doctor’s appointments and prescriptions. Why shouldn’t we expect men to use their birth control methods perfectly as well?

Another medical example is “The Husband Stitch.” Some doctors put in an extra stitch when repairing episiotomies or tearing from childbirth. The idea is that the stitch will tighten the vagina and provide increased pleasure for a male sexual partner. Unfortunately, the extra stitch can create painful consequences for women, including excruciating pain during sex. Some women don’t find out they’ve been given a husband stitch until they have a gynecological appointment with a new provider, a postpartum checkup, or a subsequent pregnancy. They might go in for a pap smear and the doctor sees the childbirth repair was made too tightly.

men have substantial control over where and when their sperm are released, while women have zero control over their eggs.

No. If you actually want to reduce abortions, you need to start much earlier. Instead of focusing on abortions, you need to focus on preventing unwanted pregnancies. And to do that, you need to focus on preventing irresponsible ejaculations.