At the beginning of October 2021, reports appeared on the Internet about an unusual initiative: supposedly a vasectomy could become mandatory for many Americans. We have verified the accuracy of this news.
October 4, 2021 on the website of the news agency “Red Spring” came out note “In the USA there is talk of forced sterilization of men.” It reported on a bill that Christopher Rabb, a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, had announced two days earlier. It is argued that, according to Rabb, until now American society and the state have only been concerned with limiting the “bodily autonomy of women and girls,” so from now on it is necessary to make cisgender men responsible. The bill would require "inseminators" to have a vasectomy within six weeks of either the birth of their third child or their 40th birthday. Rabb also offers to pay a reward of $10,000 for denunciation of a violator of the future law. In the following days, users spoke about this initiative "VKontakte", Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, "Yandex.Zena" and other social networks and blogging platforms.
October 2 on the Pennsylvania House of Representatives website appeared newsletter prepared by Christopher Rabb and sent to his colleagues. In general, in Russian-language media and social networks, its content is presented correctly, while the authors of many retellings ignore the very strange style of this letter, which differs from others similar policy texts. In the three weeks since the letter was published, this idea has didn't accept form of the bill and, according to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives website, was not discussed in session.
Introducing this idea on Twitter, Rabb said that he was inspired by the example of his colleague Kelly Cassidy from Illinois. In mid-September she published draft law to expand abortion services. The idea was called the TExAS Act - Cassidy directly states that it is serious restrictions abortion in Texas inspired her to improve the laws in her state. In both cases, as in Rabb's initiative, an amount of $10,000 appears: in Texas, this is a reward for informing on a person who helped or assisted in conducting a now-illegal abortion; in Illinois, it is proposed to pay an identical amount for reporting acts of domestic violence, rape or other situations that led to an unwanted pregnancy.
October 4 Rabb published a press release in which he directly called his initiative, which appeared two days earlier, a “parody.” The Pennsylvania lawmaker again referred to his party colleague from Illinois and emphasized that his satirical idea was intended to draw attention to the violation of the rights of women and representatives of other genders. “I urge anyone who sees my proposed legislation as absurd to be equally meticulous about laws in places like Texas and right here in Pennsylvania that impose paternalistic restrictions on the personal freedom of cisgender women, transgender men, and non-binary people with unwanted pregnancies,” the politician said.
In conversation with our colleagues from the fact-checking project PolitiFact, Rabb stated, that the purpose of his satirical initiative was to "highlight the double standards that exist regarding reproductive rights of different genders." At the same time, the politician understands that this bill will never be adopted. “If men have a problem with the government making decisions about their fertility, where is the outrage over government regulation of women's uteruses?” Rabb added.
Satirical news
- PolitiFact. Memo detailing bill to require vasectomies in Pennsylvania written to parody Texas abortion law
- Snopes. A Three-Child Limit? Bill Parodies Texas' Strict Abortion Law
- USA Today. Fact check: Pennsylvania bill proposing restrictions on male reproductive rights is satirical
- Reuters. Fact Check — Reproductive responsibility bill for men introduced as satire
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