Holy Double Standards, Batman!

from JoeUser Forums

A few years ago, a friend of mine, after his third child, decided it was time to get snipped. So, he spoke with the doctors about it, and found out something interesting:

In the state of Wisconsin, at least, a married man MUST have his wife's permission to have a vasectomy!

Contrary to a statement on a recent blog, it is not required (in Wisconsin, at least) for a woman to receive her husband's permission to have an abortion. There's an obvious double standard here that I just don't get.

politics
13,877 views 61 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
All I can say, is that I am GLAD I dont live in Wisconsin!  I was single when I had it done, but I would think that is my decision to make, regardless.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I am going to venture a guess that because a snip-job can be reversed and a dead baby cannot be brought back to life is why.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
actually, that should cause the OPPOSITE reaction. Because a snip job can be reversed, it should be the husband's right to make the decision. Essentially, the law makes the husband's nads community property, while the wife's womb (and decisions to abort children) are her own.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
I am going to venture a guess that because a snip-job can be reversed and a dead baby cannot be brought back to life is why.


That makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would the more permenant one not require dual party consent, but the one that can be reversed (and is thus less severe) does?
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top

actually, that should cause the OPPOSITE reaction. Because a snip job can be reversed, it should be the husband's right to make the decision. Essentially, the law makes the husband's nads community property, while the wife's womb (and decisions to abort children) are her own.

Got to agree with Gideon and Zoomba on this one.  It should have the exact opposite effect.

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

Reply #2 By: Moderateman - 1/20/2005 2:47:03 PM
I am going to venture a guess that because a snip-job can be reversed


Not a 100% true statement. Reversal does NOT always work. I know from personal experience.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
very insightful.
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
very insightful.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
What's the law on hysterectomies? If they require the husband's approval then there is no double standard at all. Losing the ability to father a child and having an abortion are two very different things. It's like saying that masturbation or having sex outside of the right times is wrong because it stops all those sperm from reaching eggs. You can't really compare them.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think you're referring to tubal ligations -- not hysterectomies. A woman can choose to have her tubes tied. But no woman would ever choose to have her uterus removed unless it was completely necessary for her health. Hysterectomies aren't a birth control solution. You can't just put them back if you decide at another stage to have a child - that's where IVF, surrogacy and donor eggs come into play.

If a woman didn't have to get consent from her partner to get her tubes tied THEN there's a double standard. Although it's not so easily reversed as a vasectomy (which isn't ALWAYS reversable either)

However I also agree that the father has a right in what should happen to his child.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
Oops. I think I need to study up a bit more on medicine. Thanks trina - tubal ligations are exactly what I meant, not having the whole uterus removed.
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
Btw...if you just had a tubal ligations don't mean you can't have a child anymore. My sister in law just had that, and had unprotected sex, thinking it was okay. The result is their 4th child.

Doctor didn't tell them that the process needs about 1 or 2 weeks to fully protect from pregnancy.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
Well that makes sense, what if there was already an egg on it's way down the tube, or planted in womb already
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top

I think you're referring to tubal ligations -- not hysterectomies


exactly.  and an insightful to trina_p for comparing apples with apples (so to speak)

Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top

In the state of Wisconsin, at least, a married man MUST have his wife's permission to have a vasectomy!


wisconsin being the state that issues free hunting licenses to the legally blind, im sorta scared to ask but...who has to give permission to single or separated men?  can ya get it done free by a legally blind doctor? 

Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top

Reply #15 By: kingbee - 1/20/2005 9:29:35 PM
In the state of Wisconsin, at least, a married man MUST have his wife's permission to have a vasectomy!



wisconsin being the state that issues free hunting licenses to the legally blind, im sorta scared to ask but...who has to give permission to single or separated men? can ya get it done free by a legally blind doctor?


Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
What's the law on hysterectomies? If they require the husband's approval then there is no double standard at all. Losing the ability to father a child and having an abortion are two very different things. It's like saying that masturbation or having sex outside of the right times is wrong because it stops all those sperm from reaching eggs. You can't really compare them.


It is pretty much the same thing, as both is birth control. Besides, isn't the man's testicles his own property and not his wife's? Shouldn't it be his choice and not the government's to do what he wants with his body? Surely reproductive rights don't apply only to women!
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
A woman can choose to have her tubes tied. But no woman would ever choose to have her uterus removed unless it was completely necessary for her health.


In the "just as you thought it was safe to make a blanket statement" department....

I knew a woman who had a hysterectomy purely for political reasons. She was an ardent feminist and lesbian, who proudly told anyone in earshot that she had her uterus removed because "all it's for is so that men can knock me up, well, it's gone so they have no control over my body anymore!!"

Of course, as you've figured out from reading my blog, I have known some people who were pretty far out there!! ;~D
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
legally blind


The whole "legally blind" thing makes me wonder if I'm supposed to register my colorblindness somewhere. Until I do, am I "illegally colorblind"?? ;~D
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top

I knew a woman who had a hysterectomy purely for political reasons. She was an ardent feminist and lesbian, who proudly told anyone in earshot that she had her uterus removed because "all it's for is so that men can knock me up, well, it's gone so they have no control over my body anymore!!"


i saw a documentary on one of the movie channels (cant remember which nor the title) about a woman who'd undergone transgender surgery is/was now physiologicaly male dying of ovarian cancer.  i seem to recall reading there were several other women who found themselves in that peculiarly tragic quandry. 

Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top

The whole "legally blind" thing makes me wonder if I'm supposed to register my colorblindness somewhere. Until I do, am I "illegally colorblind"??


id much prefer finding myself in deer country with an illegally colorblind hunter--even one who couldnt detect fluorescent orange from tan--than a guy with a 30.06 and a guide dog. 

on the other hand, if you wanna turn yourself in, lemme call amw first to see if there's any kinda reward for you

Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top

What's the law on hysterectomies? If they require the husband's approval then there is no double standard at all. Losing the ability to father a child and having an abortion are two very different things. It's like saying that masturbation or having sex outside of the right times is wrong because it stops all those sperm from reaching eggs. You can't really compare them.


Uh, try Tubuligation.  The only time a hystorectomy is done is when the uterus is cancerous, or in other ways severely damaged.  Unless you are into gleefully mutilating women.

Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top

It is pretty much the same thing, as both is birth control. Besides, isn't the man's testicles his own property and not his wife's? Shouldn't it be his choice and not the government's to do what he wants with his body? Surely reproductive rights don't apply only to women!


Succint and very well Stated.  You get an insightful for that.

Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top

Succint and very well Stated


hysterectomy is the same thing as a vasectomy because both are birth control? 

Reply #25 from JoeUser Forums Top

hysterectomy is the same thing as a vasectomy because both are birth control


Read it again.  It had nothing to do with a hysterectomy.  It had everything to do with the right of privacy to ones own body.  If abortion is legal under the right of privacy, then so is a man's testes.  You so love to mis-read and mis-quote.  How else would you even have any thing to say?