Just when you thought reproductive legislation couldn't get any more exciting, Mississippi State Senator Bradford Blackmon has introduced a bill that's raising a lot of eyebrows - but probably not other bodily parts. The "Contraception Begins at Erection Act" (SB2319) takes aim at what some might call the root cause of unplanned pregnancies, proving that when it comes to reproductive rights, turnabout is fair play.
As we discussed in our February 2023 coverage of Georgia's Pro-Birth Accountability Act, states have been wrestling with reproductive rights legislation since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. While the Georgia bill (which eventually died without even making it to a committee) focused on making the state financially responsible for forced births under their six-week ban, Blackmon's approach is decidedly more... direct.
Senator Blackmon's bill proposes that "it shall be unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo." In other words, Mississippi is attempting to regulate what men can do with their bodies - a legislative concept that feels strangely familiar to many women.
The bill comes with some stiff penalties (pun intended). First-time offenders face a $1,000 fine, with repeat offenders seeing that amount rise to $5,000, and third-time offenders facing a whopping $10,000 penalty. That's quite a price tag for what some might call a personal matter.
Comparing this to the Georgia approach is illuminating. While Representative Dar'shun Kendrick's Pro-Birth Accountability Act focused on the aftermath of restricted abortion access, stating "but for a law prohibiting an abortion upon a detectable heartbeat of an embryo or fetus, she would have chosen to terminate the pregnancy," the Mississippi bill takes a preemptive stance. It's like comparing apples to... well, something else entirely.
SB 2319 does provide some exemptions. Men can still "discharge genetic material" if it's "donated or sold to a facility for the purpose of future procedures to fertilize an embryo" or if they use contraception. It's worth noting that the bill doesn't specify how these violations would be detected or enforced - perhaps a detail best left to the imagination.
This legislative satire serves as a pointed commentary on the numerous bills that have sought to control women's reproductive rights. As Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. wrote regarding Georgia's LIFE Act (which provided full legal recognition to unborn children), "no right to abortion exists under the Constitution, so Georgia may prohibit them." Senator Blackmon's bill seems to ask: what other biological functions might we regulate through legislation?
SB 2319 is unlikely to pass (or 'stand up' in court if it did) but that's not really the point. As our AI dryly notes in its summary: "The bill appears to be a provocative legislative attempt to regulate male reproductive activities, potentially as a satirical response to or commentary on restrictive reproductive health legislation." Quite. Given the national attention that the bill has attracted, including the many thousands of BillTrack50 users who have viewed it, it appears to be succeeding in its likely intended purpose: highlighting the absurdity of legislative attempts to control intimate bodily functions.
The bill is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2025 - though I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for its passage. In the meantime, it serves as a reminder that in the realm of reproductive rights legislation, what's good for the goose might just be good for the gander.
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