US lawmakers have proposed that the courts take a hard look at men’s role in conception.

Proposed laws curbing erections are popping up in different states which would criminalise the spilling of seed, warning that “conception begins at erection”.

Responding to ongoing Republican efforts to restrict abortion access, Mississippi Democrat state Senator Bradford Blackmon introduced a bill last month before that state’s legislature that would ban men from all sexual acts where there was no “intent to fertilise an embryo”.

The “Contraception Begins at Erection Act” proposed outlawing “discharging genetic material” without trying to make a baby.

It included exceptions for donating sperm and using contraception to prevent fertilisation.

Anyone caught making an illegal emission faced a fine of US$1000 ($1775) for a first offence, US$5000 ($8875) for a second offence and US$10,000 ($17,750) for any subsequent offences.

The Mississippi law did not make it through the committee stage but lawmakers in Ohio followed suit in recent days, with Democratic representatives Anita Somani and Tristan Rader announcing that “fair is fair”.

The proposed law in Ohio is more permissive, allowing masturbation and gay sex and is instead titled the “Conception Begins At Erection Act”.

Both bills are designed by Democrats as counters to increasingly restrictive law around abortion and women’s access to reproductive healthcare in the United States.

“If this legislature is so dedicated to regulating women’s bodies and their access to contraceptives then let’s start policing men in the same way,” Anita Somani said.

“After all, it does take two to tango, right? Our bill would make it illegal to discharge semen or genetic material without the intent to fertilise an embryo.”

“If you find the language [in the bill] to be absurd, then maybe you should find any bill attempting to restrict reproductive freedoms absurd as well,” Rader added.

In Mississippi, Senator Blackmon said he was not concerned by criticism of his proposed law.

“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 50% of the equation,” he wrote in a statement to WLBT News.

“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.”

Abortion law in the United States was upended in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned the historic Roe vs Wade decision, ending a constitutional right to abortion.

The change saw 12 states implement total or near-total bans on abortion and others cracking on the practice and also restricting women’s access to contraception.