Mississippi Lawmaker Introduces ‘Starts at Erection Contraception Act’

Democratic Mississippi state Sen. Bradford Blackmon introduced a bill this week that would apparently ban men from masturbating or engaging in other sexual acts when they don’t “intend to fertilize an embryo.

The bill, titled “Contraception Begins at Erection Act,” would prohibit “a person from disclosing genetic material without intending to fertilize an embryo.” It includes exceptions for sperm donation and the use of 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 offense.

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 take effect in July.

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

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

“Across the country, including here in Mississippi, the vast majority of bills relating to contraception and/or abortion focus on the role of women while men represent fifty percent of the equation “, he writes. “This bill highlights that fact and brings the role of the man into the conversation. People may stand up and call it absurd, but I can’t say it bothers me.”

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

Currently, 12 states, including Mississippi, completely or almost ban abortion, while six other states ban abortion between six and 12 weeks of gestation, according to KFF, a nonprofit group that studies policy issues health.

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