Back in February, lawmakers in Oklahoma introduced a bill that poked fun at the rash of “personhood bills” giving zygotes the same rights as American citizens by offering an “every sperm is sacred” amendment. Under the measure, “any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.”
Last week, a local Delaware council in Wilmington voted 8–4 for a similar “tongue-in-cheek” resolution “that asks state legislatures and U.S. Congress to enact laws that forbid men from destroying their semen”:
Two weeks ago, at the last City Council meeting, Walsh railed against Virginia lawmakers pushing to require women to undergo ultrasounds before having an abortion. So upset over the issue, Walsh said, she stayed up until 3 a.m. drafting her resolution. […]
“I am standing up for women in this city, I am standing up for women in this state and I am standing up for the women in this country,” Walsh said. The resolution, designed to address “equality” issues, said that lawmakers have not introduced similar legislation regarding men in the United States. If some lawmakers believe the female egg is “bestowed with all the rights of personhood,” government should think the same of sperm, the resolution notes.
“[E]ach ‘egg person’ and each ‘sperm person’ should be deemed equal in the eyes of the government and be subject to the same laws and regulations as any other dependent minor and be protected against abuse, neglect or abandonment by the parent or guardian,” according to the resolution. “What’s good for the gander is good for the goose,” Walsh said.
The satirical measure does prove a serious point: only about half of fertilized eggs develop into a pregnancy. If Republican lawmakers are willing to declare every cluster of cells with the potential to become a fetus a person, why stop at fertilized eggs? Why not sperm as well?