Men across the US are apparently rushing to get vasectomies following the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion.
Urologists have told The Washington Post that they have experienced an increase in requests for the procedure following the striking down of Roe.
Tampa, Florida, resident Thomas Figueroa, 27, told the paper that he registered for a vasectomy on Monday with Doug Stein, a Florida urologist known as the “Vasectomy King”.
“It is something I put on the back-burner of my mind until very recently, when the Supreme Court decision happened,” Mr Figueroa told the paper. “That was basically the triggering factor right there. It pushed my mind to say: ‘Okay, I really do not want children. I’m going to get this vasectomy now.’”
Dr Stein said that ahead of Friday’s decision from the court, he got between four and five requests each day – a number which has increased to between 12 and 18 requests daily.
“It was very, very noticeable Friday, and then the number that came in over the weekend was huge and the number that is still coming in far exceeds what we have experienced in the past,” Dr Stein told the paper. “Many of the guys are saying that they have been thinking about a vasectomy for a while, and the Roe v Wade decision was just that final factor that tipped them over the edge and made them submit the online registration.”
The procedure is a form of permanent sterilization that stops sperm from combining with semen. In 2002, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that the top reason given by women why they were using a vasectomy as a birth control measure was that they or their partners didn’t want any more children.
Between 2011 and 2015, other reasons became more prevalent, such as medical issues and problems using other kinds of birth control.
Dr Stein and his associate John Curington told The Post that the overturning of Roe has had a direct effect on their patients. They said that men without children under the age of 30 are requesting the procedure in higher numbers than previously.
“I’d say at least 60 or 70 per cent are mentioning the Supreme Court decision,” Dr Curington said. “And a few of them have such sophistication as young men that they actually are thinking about Justice Thomas and his opinion that contraception may fall next. And that’s shocking. That’s something that doesn’t enter into our conversations ever, until this week.”
Los Angeles urologist Philip Werthman told the publication that the number of vasectomy consultations he’s performed has increased by “300 to 400 per cent” while Iowa urologist Esgar Guarín said he’s noticed a rise of “200 to 250 per cent” in the traffic on his website about vasectomies.
The director of the Center for Male Reproductive Medicine and Microsurgery at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, urologist Marc Goldstein, told The Post that he usually sees twice as many people for vasectomy reversals than vasectomies every week.
“Now it’s the other way around,” he said. “So it’s been a dramatic shift. And this [decision] is only going to further impact that in terms of increasing requests.”
Mr Figueroa told the paper: “This is probably one of the very, very rare things in politics that actually does affect me very personally and very hard,. It really woke my eyes up.”
