A Republican Tennessee lawmaker on Tuesday said that he thinks it’s harder for a man to get a vasectomy than it is for a woman to get an abortion.
“Men go through a lot more stringent process to have a vasectomy than a woman does, I would assume, on an abortion,” state Sen. Todd Gardenhire said, according to a video posted by the Huffington Post.
Gardenhire made the remarks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing while discussing a bill that would require a 48-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion, according to the Nashville Post.
State Sen. Sara Kyle (D), who opposed the legislation, brought up vasectomies while criticizing the bill.
“Why don’t we put these same standards on a man who wants to have a vasectomy?” she asked, according to The Tennessean.
Gardenhire, who supports the bill, then decided to begin discussing his own experience with a vasectomy.
“Having personal experience in that field and also having one reversed I want to promise you that when … you start talking to a doctor about them whacking on you down there, you want to wait a while and think about it,” he said, adding that a doctor discusses the vasectomy with the patient before scheduling the procedure.
