U.S. doctors see spike in vasectomies following end of Roe v. Wade: report
Global News
People in the U.S. are rushing to get vasectomies in the fallout of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the federal right to an abortion.
Doctors across the U.S. are reporting a surge in requests for vasectomies following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade legal precedent that once guaranteed the federal right to an abortion, according to The Washington Post.
Doug Stein, a urologist from Florida, a state that recently banned abortion past 15 weeks’ gestation, told The Post that he used to get about four or five vasectomy requests a day. Following the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that number has jumped to 12 to 18 requests.
“It was very, very noticeable Friday, and then the number that came in over the weekend was huge and the number that is still coming in far exceeds what we have experienced in the past,” Stein said.
“Many of the guys are saying that they have been thinking about a vasectomy for a while, and the Roe v. Wade decision was just that final factor that tipped them over the edge and made them submit the online registration.”
A vasectomy is a quick and non-invasive surgery that prevents sperm from mixing with semen and is almost 100 per cent effective at preventing pregnancy.
Around 500,000 vasectomies take place in the U.S. each year and are mostly performed on people who are already married with children. About six per cent of men get a vasectomy as a form of birth control compared to about 18 per cent of women who get their tubes tied to prevent pregnancy (despite tubal ligation being a more invasive and risky procedure).
For its part, Canada has one of the highest vasectomy rates in the world, with approximately 22 per cent of couples practicing birth control choosing vasectomies.
A 2015 United Nations report revealed that Canada has higher vasectomy rates than tubal ligation rates — one of the only industrialized nations to have that distinction.
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