Politico: Three Days in a Mobile Vasectomy Clinic in Post-Roe America
Twenty minutes after the Dobbs ruling in June, Missouri banned all abortions, except in cases of medical emergencies. And that, Dalliance says, “made the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy much worse.”
A mobile clinic truck, with Honk if you had your Vasectomy! written on the back, parked in a parking lot next to a Planned Parenthood.
Guarín's mobile clinic is seen parked in the Planned Parenthood parking lot in Joplin, Mo. He toured Missouri for three days in early November, partnering with Planned Parenthood and gynecologist Margaret Baum.
Many women, especially in deep-red states like Missouri, responded with immediate alarm to the Dobbs decision, imagining how they would navigate an unwanted pregnancy. Dalliance was among the many Americans who asked themselves what they could do to prevent those pregnancies in the first place. In the months after the Dobbs decision they called a doctor’s office to book an appointment for a vasectomy, a form of contraception that involves severing the vas deferens so that sperm cells cannot leave the testicles and thus cannot fertilize an egg. It’s something many couples are turning to after GOP-controlled legislatures have fully banned abortion in 13 states. Although there is scant national data on this surge, hospitals and doctors across the country are reporting a marked increase in both calls and appointments for the procedure, especially among young, childless men. On TikTok, the hashtag #vasectomy, which includes clips of women who assemble celebratory care packages for their partners, has been viewed 650 million times.
Guarín calls it a “vasectomy revolution.” In the 48 hours after Dobbs, traffic on his website jumped 250 percent; in the following month, the number of vasectomies he performed doubled.
Though he usually stays in Iowa, this time he’s touring Missouri as part of an agreement with Planned Parenthood, parking his vasectomy-mobile in clinic parking lots. His 24-by-8.5-foot, 11,000-lb. trailer is outfitted with running water, a bathroom and a printer, and festooned with giant letters that read, “Honk if you had your vasectomy.” The vehicle has gone viral online as “The Nutcracker,” a cheeky moniker Guarín’s friends came up with, though he thinks “The Myth Cracker” is more fitting. Over three days on the road with him, traveling from St. Louis to the industrial outposts of Springfield and Joplin in southwest Missouri, I see dozens of men of all ages, professions and political inclinations file through, seeking Guarín’s “fast, effective, stress-free, … no-needle, no-scalpel” vasectomies. There’s extreme liberals (including an anarchist) and anti-abortionists, the recently unemployed, and at least one election denier.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/02/how-dobbs-triggered-a-vasectomy-revolution-00070461
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