Ohio Democrats proposed a bill earlier this month to prohibit the discharge of semen except with the intent to fertilize any embryo. Titled the Conception Begins at Erection Act, this Saturday Night Live skit posing as legislation is proof that the remaining leftists in Ohio are neither serious nor likely to find their way out of the political wilderness anytime soon.
This is clearly much ado about nothing. The bill has no bipartisan sponsors in a legislature that is dominated by the GOP. It will go nowhere and will get there in record time. However, the two Democratic legislators are hijacking the most essential process of self-government for absurd leftist theater.
According to a report from the Statehouse News Bureau, the bill contains exceptions for masturbation, using a condom, and “the LGBTQ community.” The two sponsors said their bill was designed to “regulate the reproductive rights of men,” according to the outlet.
The effect of the bill would be to prevent any heterosexual couple, but no one else, from engaging in sex unless they want to have a baby. There is no assertion as to why this outcome would produce any benefit whatsoever, and legacy media outlets have not pressed the question.
Nor did they ask whether taking a law of general application and leaving out a group of people who cannot be objectively defined would be constitutional, much less desirable public policy. One might as well propose a bill that regulates car sales but excludes vegans.
The sponsors did explain vaguely that they were reacting to past pro-life legislation that only applied to women, although in what appeared to be a concession that there are only two sexes, state Rep. Anita Somani, an OB-GYN, said, “We need to look at it from the broader perspective of regulating one sex and not the other.”
Since her bill does precisely that, the only logical conclusion is that she is abusing her privilege as a legislator to make a partisan political statement with a proposed law that she has no intention of passing.
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Neither the Democratic sponsors nor the media discussed the serious question of why this legislation was timely or even needed in a state that has enshrined a broader-than-Roe v. Wade right to abortion in its state constitution.
No matter. The bit of absurdity provided a rare opportunity to use the word “erection” in a headline, and the politicians and media collaborative got to share a clickbait giggle.
Dave Yost is Ohio’s 51st attorney general, serving his second term. He is a candidate for governor.