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| - Sen. Bradford Blackmon, a Democrat, introduced the measure, and the state's Republican-led Legislature is unlikely to pass it. The proposal, which appears to be social commentary on reproductive rights more than anything, makes exceptions for masturbation to donate sperm to embryo-freezing facilities and sex during which contraception was used.
On Jan. 20, 2025, Mississippi state Sen. Bradford Blackmon, a Democrat who represents Jackson neighborhoods, proposed a bill dubbed the "Contraception Begins at Erection Act" that would ban men from performing sexual acts without "the intent to fertilize an embryo."
The state's Republican-led Legislature is unlikely to pass the bill, which would impose fines of up to $10,000 for repeat offenders. The proposal attracted attention across social media platforms, including Reddit and X, where posts about it collectively received millions of views (archived here, here, here and here, respectively).
The legislation, Senate Bill 2319, reads:
AN ACT TO ENACT THE CONTRACEPTION BEGINS AT ERECTION ACT; TO DEFINE TERMS; TO PROVIDE THAT IT SHALL BE UNLAWFUL FOR A PERSON TO DISCHARGE GENETIC MATERIAL WITHOUT THE INTENT TO FERTILIZE AN EMBRYO; TO PROVIDE FOR CRIMINAL PENALTIES; TO PROVIDE CERTAIN EXCEPTIONS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
Written to take effect July 1, 2025, the bill calls for fines of $1,000 for first-time offenders, $5,000 for second violations and $10,000 for third or subsequent offenses. It makes exceptions for the "discharge of genetic material" that's being donated or sold to embryo-freezing facilities or happened during sex where contraception was used.
As of this publication, the bill had not had an official reading or hearing for lawmakers to review its contents.
Snopes contacted Blackmon by email and will update this article if we receive a response. In a statement to Jackson's NBC affiliate station WLBT, he said:
All across the country, especially here in Mississippi, the vast majority of bills relating to contraception and/or abortion focus on the woman's role when men are fifty percent of the equation.
This bill highlights that fact and brings the man's role into the conversation. People can get up in arms and call it absurd but I can't say that bothers me.
This type of bill — that is, legislation that is unlikely to pass and appears to be a political statement more than anything — is not a new congressional phenomenon.
In 2017, a Kentucky state lawmaker introduced a bill that would have required men to get their wives' permission to get prescriptions for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs. That same year, a Texas state lawmaker introduced a bill that would have imposed fines on men for masturbating. And in 2023, a Republican U.S. representative introduced federal legislation that would have made the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle the "national gun of the United States."
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