The birth control debate has reached Missouri.
Rep. Stacey Newman, D-District 73, has introduced a bill that would prevent a man from receiving a vasectomy “unless it is to save his life or prevent substantial and irreversible physical impairment.”
The bill is a response to the debate over the Affordable Health Care Act, primarily the uproar regarding birth control. The act started the birth control debate when it mandated health insurance providers, excluding religious organizations, cover preventive health services for women.
Opponents of the mandate argue it forces health providers to cover birth control regardless of their moral opposition, while proponents believe women covered by religious institutions deserve reproductive health care at the same cost as other women.
Newman said her bill would require men to go through the same restrictions women do to receive reproductive healthcare.
“I’m joining legislators from around the country,” she said. “So far, there has been legislation that has been filed in eight states attacking men’s reproductive decisions the same way (women’s) are.”
Newman said her bill is making a statement on the birth control debate and isn’t necessarily looking to restrict vasectomy access. She said the bill probably will not be heard on the floor or voted on.
Despite the bill’s chances of being passed, or even read in the House, Newman said the bill could still make an effect.
“My bill is a direct response to our voices being shut down on a topic that is unique to women,” she said.
Legislature across the country has been too occupied with the birth control debate, Newman said.
“We’ve got some serious, serious issues that legislators need to be dealing with, and instead we spend hours and hours attacking women’s reproductive heath decisions, which are private,” she said.
Newman said the use of preventative health care is not controversial to the majority of women.
“Ninety-eight percent of women across the country use or have used birth control, (and) that includes 98 percent of Catholic women,” Newman said. “It is a non-issue, it is a non-starter for women everywhere, and for contraception that’s been legal and acceptable since 1960 to all of a sudden to become an issue in 2012 is just abominable.”