For more than a decade, Republicans in the Ohio Legislature have passed dozens of bills on reproductive rights and abortion. Now some Democratic lawmakers are sponsoring a bill that would apply to men.
The “Conception Begins at Erection Act” is sponsored by Reps. Anita Somani (D-Dublin) and Tristan Rader (D-Lakewood).
Somani, an OB/GYN, has protested many bills that have been passed by the Republican-dominated Ohio Legislature to regulate pregnancy or limit the reproductive freedom of women. So she, along with Rader, explained their bill to regulate the reproductive rights of men on TikTok.
“After all, it does take two to tango, right?” Somani said.
Somani said it would be illegal for a man to disseminate semen or genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo. She says there would be three exceptions – masturbation, using a condom and the LGBTQ community.
The bill has just been written and hasn’t been assigned a number yet. It also doesn’t have any Republican sponsors either. Somani said she doesn’t have any GOP lawmakers on board and doesn’t expect the Republican dominated legislature to take it seriously, but she adds, “we need to look at it from the broader perspective of regulating one sex and not the other.”
It's not a surprise, but Rep. Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville), one of the most conservative members of the House, won’t be signing on to the legislation. He said he doesn’t understand why the Democratic lawmakers would think there are so many bills that regulate women’s bodies. He said this bill doesn’t make any sense.
“We are talking about conception happening before a sperm fertilizes an egg. Clearly, somebody doesn’t understand simple biology,” Ferguson said.
When asked about the bevy of anti-abortion laws passed by the legislature in recent years, Ferguson said, “Sure we can have that conversation but that’s a completely different conversation.”
Ferguson said this bill is “completely out of touch with what matters to everyday Americans.”
Rader said the bill is meant to highlight “the vast inequalities of how we talk about men’s bodies and how we talk about women’s bodies.” He said, “If you find this language to be absurd then maybe you should find any bill attempting to restrict reproductive freedoms absurd as well.”
A similar proposal has been introduced by a Democratic state lawmaker in Mississippi, another state that's dominated by Republicans. The Supreme Court decision that overturned the federal right to abortion came from a case out of Mississippi.
