MEN IN THE CONVERSATION

Partnership, Politics, and Pregnancy

The recent abortion ruling and Idaho law are changing the ethics of sex

BY HARRISON BERRY

Until recently, I did not take vasectomy seriously.

Vasectomy is a low-risk, reversible (especially within a few years), extremely effective contraceptive method and—in contrast to many forms of birth control available to women— comes with no side effects. Despite its many advantages, only 5% of married men have gotten the “little snip.” Just 8% of all vasectomies are performed on unmarried men.

I bring this up because unlike forms of contraception like IUDs or the “morning-after” pill, “vasectomy” is not mentioned once in Dobbs v. Jackson, the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned women’s right to an abortion. When someone leaked a draft of the opinion a month earlier, my thoughts about vasectomy (and those of many other men) changed.

This procedure fascinates me. If you’re a man in a stable, straight relationship, ask yourself these questions: Is my partner on birth control? If so, what are the risks and side effects? Are they more severe than a minor outpatient procedure and a couple days icing your groin? Since the Dobbs decision, a lot of men are saying yes— at least to the latter question. According to The Atlantic, the number of appointments for vasectomies spiked after the leak and again with the official release of the decision. Speaking to Idaho Matters, Dr. Nicholas Kuntz of the Idaho Urologic Institute said he has seen a 60% increase in the number of men considering scheduling appointments.

The Dobbs decision and Idaho’s “trigger law” that criminalizes nearly all abortions have colored the way many men in relationships view their responsibility to the women in their lives. With abortions effectively illegal in many parts of the country and reproductive health under fire, more couples are discussing chasing the old backstop against unwanted pregnancy or creating new ones.

Fifteen years ago, Sara Spencer nearly died from an aneurysm, and doctors told her pregnancy would be risky and potentially life-threatening. When she learned Idaho would be one of the first states to block abortions, she called her doctor to replace her IUD. Her doctor put her on a waiting list because so many other women had the same idea. The experience left her feeling helpless. “Pregnancy terrifies me, just with everything I’ve gone through health-wise,” she said. “It infuriated me, not just for myself, but for my nieces and friends.”

Spencer has been open with her husband Riley Youngerman about her health and what it means for them starting a family, but in the conversations following news from the Supreme Court, she relayed some of her friends’ experiences with fertility, abortion, pregnancy, and childbirth.

“As a man, you have a very black-and-white idea of what abortion is,” Youngerman said. “Since the Dobbs decision, I’ve realized my own ignorance on the issue. Abortion procedures are used for a lot more than terminating a pregnancy. Miscarriages are far more common than men realize. It’s just really eye-opening.”

Youngerman and Spencer are making plans to move. Washington, Colorado, or somewhere on the East Coast are all strong possibilities, with a pie-in-the-sky goal of Europe. I asked Youngerman about whether they’d talked about a vasectomy. “I’d say it’s more likely than it was six months ago,” he said. “It’s a good method that’s reversible. Is that something we need to consider if things go even further?” Spencer asked.

Sara Spencer and Riley Youngerman are making plans to leave Idaho due to the possibility of facing high-risk pregnancy complications and lack of lawful resources

PHOTO BY KAREN DAY

They can. In May of this year, Idaho Rep. Brent Crane, chairman of the Idaho House State Affairs Committee, said on Idaho Matters that he would consider holding hearings on an effort to ban abortifacients—medications that result in the termination of a fetus. Though he clarified that the intent is not to ban birth control, his statements have only added to some people’s concerns that Idaho is closing the door on options for women.

Among them are Ellen and Brett Wilson. Brett moved to Boise with his now-ex-wife in 2015 from Austin, Texas. Two years and a divorce later, he met his future wife Ellen, who has a daughter, whom he adopted in 2019. Like Youngerman and Spencer, they are leaving Idaho because of the political climate and received the first offer on their Boise home in mid-August. They said they’d like to resettle in the Northeast. “It would be fun to experience the changes in society and the services,” Brett said. “It’s what we’re looking for: an environment built on that instead of the exclusion of others.”

Also like Spencer and Youngerman, they felt helpless when they learned about the Dobbs ruling. They called it a “disconnect from what everyone wants”—access to healthcare—and there’s some merit to that. Between June 24 and June 28, the polling site FiveThirtyEight tracked seven separate polls on the approval rating of the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Across all seven, 31%-42% of respondents approved of the decision, while 47%-60% disapproved. Then, in early August, voters in Kansas, a state with a majority vote for Republican presidential candidates since 1976, rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have allowed lawmakers to continue restricting or outright ban abortion rights in the state by almost 20%.

It’s unlikely that Idaho voters will be given the same opportunity for direct say on the issue anytime soon. The state’s law is among the tightest in the country. So tight, in fact, that the Department of Justice sued Idaho lawmakers over its trigger law, alleging that its provisions contradict a federal law protecting abortion as a treatment when the life of the mother is in danger. This is the environment the Wilsons are now trying to escape for the sake of their children, whose health, dignity, finances, and legal status could come into question because of the new abortion regime. The negative effects, they said, are both personal and systemic.

“It doesn’t affect me directly, but it affects every woman I know,” Brett said. “It affects my daughters. It affects every woman in your life. If abortion is denied, it affects every person and the legacies of whole families.”

“I wouldn’t subject my children to forced birth,” Ellen added. “Fortunately, we don’t have to consider that right now.” It’s too soon to say if Idaho’s stance on abortion will cause many people to leave the state, stockpile Plan B, pursue vasectomies, or take other action at a significant scale. I do wager that the developments of the last few months have shaken the accepted ethics around sex and reproductive issues. Men don’t have abortions. We can’t get pregnant or have babies. We don’t use expensive and potentially dangerous birth control. The Supreme Court and many states just took away a right that Americans abided for two generations, forcing many people to ask themselves how and where they want to live and what the true costs of sex and reproduction are in 2022 and beyond.