Mississippi lawmaker introduces ‘Contraception Begins at Erection Act’

Mississippi state Sen. Bradford Blackmon, a Democrat, introduced a bill this week that would seemingly ban men from masturbating or engaging in other sexual acts when they have no “intent to fertilize an embryo.”

The bill, titled the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act,” would make it unlawful for “a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.” It includes exceptions for sperm donation and using contraception to prevent fertilization.

The bill, introduced Monday, imposes fines of $1,000 for a first offense, $5,000 for a second offense and $10,000 for any subsequent offenses.

The bill is unlikely to pass the GOP-led state Legislature, but if it does and is signed into law by Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, it would go into effect in July.

Blackmon, a first-term senator representing a district north of Jackson, the capital, did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.

In a statement to WLBT News, an NBC television affiliate in Jackson, Blackmon referred to the high number of state legislative bills introduced in recent years that target women’s access to reproductive health care, specifically abortion and contraception.

“All across the country, especially here in Mississippi, the vast majority of bills relating to contraception and/or abortion focus on the woman’s role when men are fifty percent of the equation,” he wrote. “This bill highlights that fact and brings the man’s role into the conversation. People can get up in arms and call it absurd but I can’t say that bothers me.”

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended the constitutional right to abortion, legislatures in Republican-led states have increasingly sought to restrict abortion and contraception access.

Currently, 12 states, including Mississippi have total or near-total abortion bans, while an additional six states ban abortion from six to 12 weeks of gestation, according to the KFF, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues.

By mid-2024, eight states had enacted or proposed restrictions on women’s access to contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion.