A Kansas urologist has reported a 900% increase in men seeking vasectomies since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
On Friday, June 24, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Mississippi law that bans abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy - about two months earlier than what has been allowed under the Roe precedent.
The justices voted 5-4 in favor of overturning the constitutional right for a woman to attain an abortion before a fetus' viability outside the womb - which is typically around 24 weeks.
Around half of US states have either already banned abortion or have indicated that they plan on doing so. As a result, millions of women will have extremely limited access to abortion services.
As a result of the decision, there has been a huge increase in men booking vasectomy consultations, according to urologists.
Dr. Christian Hettinger, a urologist at the Kansas City Urology Care, told KSHB 41 News: "One of our office managers said get ready.
"Since Friday, we’re up 900% in people looking to get a vasectomy."
“Typically, it’s about three phone calls over a weekend, over this past weekend it was 50 calls looking for vasectomies,” he said.
Hettinger says he tells his patients the same thing - that vasectomies should not be regarded as a temporary solution.
“It should be viewed as a permanent form of sterilization, it’s not something that’s a good temporary fix if you will,” he said. “It’s not something I would plan to have done and then reversed in the future.”
KSHB 41 News spoke to a man, Lyon Lenk, about his decision to get a vasectomy.
"It’s not right for everybody," he said. "Either I get this, or we risk her being denied a procedure down the line and that’s unacceptable to me, so it’s not a sacrifice, it’s the right thing to do.”
Additionally, The Washington Post spoke to Florida-based urologist Doug Stein, who echoed Hettinger's comments.
"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 revealed to the publication.
"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."
The bans will make the US one of only four countries to roll back abortion rights since 1994 and the richest nation to do so.
