Letters to the Editor: A nation of vasectomized men — did you envision this, antiabortion zealots?
“What kind of nation is the United States of America,” you might have asked a few years back, in the aftermath of the 2008-09 economic downturn, “that would have any people, anywhere in the world who’ll be doing this kind of thing?”
Well, perhaps you wouldn’t have been surprised to hear that more than 3 million men across the country have vasectomies. They’re the result of unplanned pregnancies. In the U.S., about 4 percent of women have undergone this surgery.
A nation where most people live happy, content lives with their families and pets? I see no evidence of that. In fact, the most popular reason for going into this surgery — men being denied what they want with their lives — is precisely the reason they have it. People don’t change. They only go through periods in which they are compelled to take such drastic measures. I find myself saying, “Who are you to be so unmindful?”
I understand the pro-life movement uses the same argument against vasectomies as against women’s right to vote, saying that men should be denied the right to life at conception, and all other rights. I also understand that we’d like to believe in an America where men, like women, have a right to choose. But I don’t. I don’t think of my husband’s vasectomy or my brother’s vasectomy as any kind of right. I believe my husband’s vasectomy is a decision that has nothing to do with my rights, and vice versa. It is a decision he made for himself. It is a decision that has nothing to do with my right to do what I want with my body.
I don’t believe in abortion. I’m a strong believer in