Karianne Lisonbee, a member of the Utah House of Representatives, recently said that she believes women can control the “intake of semen” during sex. (Yes, really.)
The Republican lawmaker, who has been in office since 2017, expressed this belief during a press conference held after Roe V. Wade was overturned on June 24, putting abortion out of reach for millions of Americans.
Lisonbee’s straight-up false notions about what a vagina can do during sex came in response to a text she received when Roe was overturned, according to reporting by The Salt Lake Tribune: “I received a text message today saying I should seek to control men’s ejaculations and not women’s pregnancies and that I clearly don’t trust women enough to make choices to control their own body,” Representative Lisonbee said.
She then outlined her response to such a claim to reporters. “And my response is: I do trust women enough to control when they allow a man to ejaculate inside of them and to control that intake of semen. So, that may be inflammatory, but I think as a legislature we have the responsibility to create a legal framework that is friendly and supporting rights.”
We regret that we even have to say this, but: Representative Lisonbee’s claims are physiologically inaccurate. Once semen has entered the vagina, people with vaginas can’t do Kegel exercises—or any other practices—as a method of birth control; nor can they do anything after the fact to remove the semen and prevent pregnancy.
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