State Rep. Rolanda Hollis (D-Birmingham) is doubling down after she made international headlines on Thursday. Hollis introduced a bill that would require every Alabama man to undergo a vasectomy within one month of his 50th birthday, or the birth of his third biological child, whichever comes first.
According to Yellowhammer News, HB 238 laments in the bill summary:
“Under existing law, there are no restrictions on the reproductive rights of men.”1
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Hollis confirmed in a tweet sharing Yellowhammer’s original article on the legislation that HB 238 is admittedly a reaction to pro-life legislation passed last year, including the Human Life Protection Act. She wrote:
“The Vasectomy bill is to help with the reproductive system. This is to neutralize the abortion ban bill (Human Life Protection Act). The responsibility is not always on the women. It takes 2 to tangle [sic]. This will help prevent pregnancy as well as abortion of unwanted children. This bill is to help men become more accountable as well as women.”1
On Friday, Hollis reportedly pushed back on the idea that HB 238 is “an outrageous overstep.” Yellowhammer reports:
She complained that “year after year the majority party continues to introduce new legislation that tries to dictate a woman’s body and her reproductive rights,” adding, “men should not be legislating what women do with their bodies.”1
Vasectomies under Hollis’ bill would be at the man’s expense. HB 238 has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation is very much dead-on-arrival in the Alabama legislature.
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In 2019, Hollis read from a poem “If My Vagina was a Gun,” comparing the Second Amendment rights debate to the debate over a woman’s right to an abortion during the discussion of the Human Life Protection Act.
Debate on that bill last year in the upper chamber touched on vasectomy, but in a different way. State Sen. Vivian Davis-Figures (D-Mobile) offered an amendment to criminalize any man who gets a vasectomy with a Class A felony. An attempted vasectomy would have been a Class C felony. That amendment did not succeed.
During that debate, state Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison (D-Birmingham) went further, recommending that “a castration bill” should be introduced.
In addition to HB 238, Hollis also filed a bill on Thursday that would require local Alabama boards of education to provide feminine hygiene products in female restrooms at public schools in their respective jurisdictions. Additionally, State Rep. Ginny Shaver (R-Leesburg) reintroduced an anti-infanticide bill she first filed last session.
