Karianne Lisonbee, a Utah Republican who serves in the state's House of Representatives, was criticized after she claimed people can control the "intake of semen" into their bodies to avoid pregnancy.
Lisonbee's comments came after the Supreme Court published a ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that once protected a person's right to choose reproductive health care without excessive government restriction.
While she later attempted to clarify her remarks, saying they "did not reflect what I intended to express," they represented yet another example of the startling statements coming from the mouths of conservative figures who have basked in the news of the ruling, which has been hailed as a major victory by the Evangelical Christian right.
You can hear her remarks in the video below.
Lisonbee said:
"I got a text message today saying I should seek to control men's ejaculations and not women's pregnancies, [suggesting] that I clearly don't trust women enough to make choices to control their own body."
"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."
"I think 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."
Lisonbee was immediately criticized for her remarks.
Reproductive rights advocates across Utah have responded in outrage following the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe.
The state is one of several with a trigger law that immediately went into effect upon Roe's reversal that effectively bans abortion in the state except in cases where it "is necessary to avert the death" of the pregnant woman or there is "a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."
Lisonbee co-authored the law, which was proposed in 2020. While the law contains an exception for rape or incest, it requires a physician performing the abortion to verify that the rape or incest has been reported to the authorities before it can actually proceed.
Lisonbee drew attention to this legislation afterward, saying her statements, controversial as they are, "made clear the actions I have taken to pass bills that provide legal protection and recourse to victims of sexual assault."
Her statement came just before Illinois Republican Representative Mary Miller declared during a rally for former President Donald Trump, who appointed three conservatives to the Supreme Court while in office and tilted its ideological balance to the right, that he had given his supporters a "victory for white life."
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