Exploring The Idea of Gov’t Mandated Vasectomies: I Was 6 Y.O. When I Saw My First Aborted Fetus
By: Holly Nelson
Tags: Metoo, Womens Health, Womens Rights, Abortion, Psychology

This is a paper I wrote in February of this year and disseminated privately in a Google Doc that I share with a small group of my followers. This article was written not to express that my view is that we should mandate vasectomies for young boys. It is to be taken as an expression of my concern that people don’t really know why they believe the things that they do. We are so numb to the concept of abortion as an idea unto itself, that I wanted to explore an alternative reality to highlight some points about regulating the human body. . . in any way. Whether you’re a liberal or a conservative, I ask you to read this article without pigeon-holing me, because I will never meet the conservative nor the liberal agenda. I am here for a different purpose, and that is to bring everyone’s awareness to why they believe the things the way that they do.

I was 6-years-old when I saw my first aborted fetus.

I looked up at the tiny bloody dismembered arm blocking the sun above me. Then I looked down to the stroller where my beautiful baby brother slept and reached out to hold his hand.

The horrible images were glued to large white posters and hoisted above the heads of the people who went to my parent’s church. My father was the victim of a sociopathic, narcissistic, emotionally and verbally abusive pastor in Southampton who played on my father’s extreme childhood trauma. This resulted in his brainwashing and he became the assistant pastor, dangling the validation of a father-figure over his head. . . the kind of validation he never got from his own alcoholic and physically abusive dad. This culminated in my attending abortion picketings with my parents at an age that was extremely inappropriate. . .how easy it is to shape a young mind when it isn’t old enough to form an opinion of their own on the matter… My parents regret it, they didn’t know any better. They just knew that to them abortion was wrong, and they followed the pastor’s lead. This is the problem right now. We have lots of people who hold beliefs but not enough people who know exactly why they hold them.

I was brought up in an extremely conservative Christian way, the first 3 years of my life were spent in Haiti and then my parents moved us to the Dominican Republic when I was 9. I was a missionary kid until I moved back to the states when I was 17. I went to a Christian university for my Bachelor’s in Biology. And guess what. I believe a woman should have the right to choose. But, I do think there are smarter and safer ways to regulate unwanted pregnancies so that we don’t even have to DEBATE the issue. But most of you are wasting your time debating endlessly on Facebook rather than actually working to fix the issue you are debating about in the first place. And some of you debate the issue incessantly with strangers because you’re looking for a way to tell yourself you believe the belief because you’ve never stopped to ask yourself why you even believe it.

Start Asking Yourself Some Questions

Before we get to the idea of government-mandated vasectomies, you need to ask yourself some questions:

First question to ask yourself: “Why am I pro-life or, Why am I pro-choice?”

Most of you will answer with:

Abortion is wrong because it’s murder, if women can’t make the “right decision” then they must be governmentally regulated.

OR

Regulating women’s bodies is wrong, it’s not right for the government to have the legal claim to regulate it.

Now ask yourself: “Why do I think abortion is wrong, or Why do I think government regulation of a person’s body is wrong?”

What’s your answer? Perhaps it was,

Because the Bible says murder is a sin, and I believe in the Bible, the life of a baby is a human life that must be protected.

OR

Because the US government has a horrible track record of defining what is and isn’t considered human nor have they proven they can take care of it so why should we trust them now? (See: Slavery, Jim Crow Laws, and Women’s Right To…I guess anything for that matter).

Okay so now ask yourself “Why” again: “Why do I believe the Bible when it says abortion is wrong, Or Why do I believe the government’s regulation of abortion is wrong?”

You might say something along the lines of,

“Because I just do.”

OR

“It’s how I was raised.”

Sorry, but I’m not convinced by either one of you. . .

If you kept making you ask yourself the question “Why” after every answer you gave yourself. . . neither one of you will ultimately be able to go any further with your answers other than, “Well, I just see it that way; that’s just what I believe.”

So here we find ourselves at the very end, and neither of you can answer the biggest “Why” question: Why do I believe something the way that I do?

How much does that say about your free will to choose your own beliefs? How much does that say about your ability to convince another person to see it as you do? If you can’t answer your biggest Why question for you, how do you plan to convince them that you are the one who holds the answer? Because in reality, you really don’t hold the answer and that makes you a terrible salesperson, wouldn’t you agree?

Anti-abortion legislation would mean the U.S. Government would make abortion illegal and force girls and women of any age or financial means to carry to full term and endure labor. As abortion legislation stands, abortion is federally legal but is regulated by state governments. They limit where these clinics can be, making it difficult to find a place to have one. And sometimes they require women to take a psychological evaluation to deem a woman “mentally fit” to make such a decision. What do you think is the intention behind a psych eval for an abortion?

“We only want ‘sane’ people aborting fetuses…wouldn’t want any ‘crazies’ having abortions!”

Does that even make sense? By putting it that way you can see that the intention for mandatory psych evals is very clear, it’s another means of legally being able to say no to women. And what about the idea that pro-life lawmakers care about the life of the child? Well, my favorite fact to share with people is that states with the most abortion restrictions have the fewest supportive policies for women and children, and I’m really not surprised.

Would You Like Me To Cut Your Stomach Open Or Your Taint?

Let’s go over just a FEW examples of the physical harm that happens to the female body during pregnancy and birth (we’ll start with the worst and make our way down the pain scale):

C-section and Episiotomy : Pick your poison, should I slice your stomach open with my razer blade or slice your ‘taint’? Oh, you want another option? Sorry, that’s all we have available.

Read that again.

I said, “would you like me to slice open your stomach or your perineum?”.

The funny thing about me hypothetically asking you which you would prefer, is that in reality, women aren’t given a choice. They are told which type of birth they will be having and they don’t get a say in the matter as much as you would believe. If you have to have a C-section because of complications, then obviously you are forced to have your stomach sliced open. Your stomach muscles are snipped. If you aren’t a candidate for a C-section you have to have a natural birth. Often the flesh between the vaginal opening and your anus (it’s called the perineum) is cut with a scalpel to make the “hole” big enough for the baby to come through, this procedure is called an episiotomy. Then it’s sewed back up with a needle. If an episiotomy is not done, you risk tearing the perineum during birth which then has to be sewn up at the end. Men: when riding a bike you often feel sore in the taint area, a place we all know is very sensitive. Imagine on a bike ride you have an accident that splits your taint in half.

: Pick your poison, should I slice your stomach open with my razer blade or slice your ‘taint’? Oh, you want another option? Sorry, that’s all we have available. I said, “would you like me to slice open your stomach or your perineum?”. The funny thing about me hypothetically asking you which you would prefer, is that in reality, women aren’t given a choice. They are told which type of birth they will be having and they don’t get a say in the matter as much as you would believe. If you have to have a C-section because of complications, then obviously you are forced to have your stomach sliced open. Your stomach muscles are snipped. If you aren’t a candidate for a C-section you have to have a natural birth. Often the flesh between the vaginal opening and your anus (it’s called the perineum) is cut with a scalpel to make the “hole” big enough for the baby to come through, this procedure is called an episiotomy. Then it’s sewed back up with a needle. If an episiotomy is not done, you risk tearing the perineum during birth which then has to be sewn up at the end. when riding a bike you often feel sore in the taint area, a place we all know is very sensitive. Imagine on a bike ride you have an accident that splits your taint in half. Small needles are injected into the spine to numb the area just so that it won’t be as painful when they put another big needle into your spine. Basically, this means experiencing bearable pain, to make something slightly unbearable less painful. . . just to make something extremely unbearably painful become bearable pain. Makes a whole lotta sense, right?

At some point there are multiple people’s hands shoved into your vagina. Men: Imagine a prostate exam but with your doctor’s entire fist up there :)

Imagine a prostate exam but with your doctor’s entire fist up there :) Lightening shock pain to lower abdominal area at random times. It’s caused by the pressure and position of the baby as they descend into the birth canal to get ready for delivery. Men: think of a foot cramp but literally in your penis.

think of a foot cramp but literally in your penis. Nausea and vomiting. Men: think of your worst college hangover then imagine Ground Hog day, repeating the toilet puking experience every day for almost an entire year. Now imagine if you had to go to work or class every time you’re hungover.

think of your worst college hangover then imagine Ground Hog day, repeating the toilet puking experience every day for almost an entire year. Now imagine if you had to go to work or class every time you’re hungover. Hemorrhoids: which are blood vessels in the rectal area that have become unusually swollen, painful, and bleed.

Yeast infections: where the sensitive vaginal skin becomes itchy and often blistered and red and painful because of the impulse to scratch to ease the itching. Men: think of the worst jock-itch you’ve ever had or hundreds of mosquito bites all over your scrotum that you’ve scratched open raw.

think of the worst jock-itch you’ve ever had or hundreds of mosquito bites all over your scrotum that you’ve scratched open raw. High blood pressure and the risk of developing diabetes. Yes, you can live your life, not at risk for diabetes, but you get pregnant and BAM, Wilford Brimley’s calling you to tell you that you have diabetussss.

This list doesn’t even take into account the psychological harm and trauma that occurs as a result of being pregnant when you WANT the baby, let alone being pregnant because you’re forced to be. Depression, anxiety, PTSD etc… just to name a few.

Gov’t Mandated Vastectomies For Men

Now let’s ask you another “Why” question. If you’re going to mandate a woman or young girl to develop a fetus inside of her, why did you choose to hold the belief that we should regulate the woman? Why didn’t you choose to believe that we could regulate the other part of that equation — the man? Well, we know the answer. Because historically men have been in charge, they know the consequences of government regulation, and they don’t want the government in their pants because they know the repercussions, and they don’t like them.

If you’re okay forcing a young girl or woman to carry a fetus, making her assume all the physical and psychological risks (including the splitting in half of her genital area), THEN you should be okay forcing all males above the age of 16 to submit to having a reversible vasectomy until they are deemed by certain government standards to be approved to procreate.

“Success rates can be as high as 95 percent if the vasectomy was done within the last 10 years.” (Cleveland Clinic) “Testosterone levels don’t go down as a result of vasectomy.” (Verywell Health)

If the vasectomy is given at age 16, then a 26-year-old is old enough to decide to have children or remain sterile. And if the man wants to start a family younger, he must prove to the government he has met all the standards that they have set forth for him to meet.

But this sounds like a concept out of a George Orwell novel, huh?

But this is just how we make women meet a certain standard of mental fitness in a psych evaluation, or how in Florida a girl under 18 must have her parents sign off on the paperwork for an abortion.

So what would the government deem appropriate for the legal reversal of a man’s vasectomy? Would they have to be legally married or could they stay unmarried and just want to have a family? Would they have to be of a certain financial status to prove that they could take care of a child? Would they have to pass a psychological assessment to deem they are mentally fit to have a kid?

Since you are OKAY forcing young girls and women to carry to term (which can kill them at the worst end of the spectrum or tear their genitals or stomach in two at the best end of the spectrum)…. why aren’t you okay forcing men to be sterile until they are fit to be responsible for having a child, with someone who also decided she wanted one?

If you agree that Male + Female = Fetus, and you feel it’s appropriate to regulate one part of the equation, why does it feel like it’s “going too far” to regulate the other? Snip snip, and the guy is out in 30 minutes. They’re sore for 2 days. The risks of a vasectomy are minimal. The procedure takes 30-minutes as opposed to 9 months.

You can’t tell me that the physical side effects of vasectomies are worse than forcing pregnancy and labor. So, 1 point for vasectomies. You can’t tell me that the psychological effect on young boys would be more damaging than the effect pregnant and labor would have on women. So, 2 points for vasectomies, so far.

So what sounds outlandish about that to you? Is it the part where we make the men of a certain age submit to a mental health examination to deem them appropriate to have children? Because that sounds a lot like making girls and women submit to psych evals to deem them mentally fit to abort children.

Or perhaps it’s the requiring of a human of a very young age to have a medical procedure done to their genital area which could be traumatizing? Because that sounds a lot like making women carry to full-term and have forced medical procedures to their genital area.

I think we know which one it is. It’s the part where American legislators force a human being to do something with their body that they don’t get the right to say yes or no to. Because that sounds a lot like what would happen if abortion became illegal and it sounds a lot like what is happening on the state level right now to women who pursue abortion procedures.

If you were really about the life of the child inside the womb, the means of preventing that child from having to experience being aborted would be arbitrary. Your thought process would simply be to just fix the issue with the least amount of damage and repercussions to all the human beings involved.

We make American women take psych evaluations to make sure they are mentally fit to abort a fetus but we don’t make American citizens regardless of gender take a psych eval to make sure they are mentally fit to have children. If you’re not okay with someone being tested to see if they’re mentally healthy to have kids, is it really about the life of the child for you?

Be honest with yourself. You’re okay with and support the government controlling a person, unless that person being controlled is you. If you’re a pro-life MAN, you’re okay with legislation governing women’s bodies because it will never be yours that gets regulated. And, if you’re a pro-life WOMAN, you’re most likely not a part of the demographic whose life circumstances often lead to an abortion decision — because you’re too privileged! You often aren’t from a lower socioeconomic status, you often have dependable housing, you often have the means to pursue education, and you often have the capability and means to support a child even if it wasn’t planned. You don’t need to worry about abortion legislation because odds are your pregnancy will be planned, happy, and celebrated by a gender-reveal party on Instagram!

So the question we all have to ask ourselves is this:

“Why are we so stubborn to change our beliefs, yet so passionate about changing others?”

“Why do we hold beliefs without knowing why we hold them?”

And most importantly, “Why do we believe the things that we believe?”

And if you can’t answer these questions for you, then you don’t really have the right to push your beliefs on others.