Religion and Vasectomy Uptake Among Married Men in the USA

Despite clear links between religious commitment, sexual behavior, and fertility, relatively little is known about religion's role in contraceptive practices, especially vasectomy uptake. Vasectomy is an understudied but important method of contraception that is safe and effective and shifts contraceptive labor from women to men. Existing studies of religion and vasectomy assess the impact of religion on women's reliance on their partner's vasectomy without directly measuring men's religious characteristics, are dated, and typically do not distinguish Protestant groups from one another. In this study, we analyze data from 25- to 44-year-old married men in the 2011-2019 National Survey of Family Growth (N = 4120) to assess differences in vasectomy uptake by religious affiliation and frequency of religious service attendance. The percentage of married men who are vasectomized varies substantially across religious affiliations, ranging from 3.5% among Hispanic Catholics to 18.5% among non-Hispanic Catholics. The differences among religious groups are mostly explained by income, race, ethnicity, age, and parity. However, even after controlling for these and other background factors, Hispanic Catholic men have a lower probability of being vasectomized than evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, non-Hispanic Catholics, and religiously unaffiliated men, suggesting their religious subculture has distinct norms around vasectomy. Religious service attendance is not associated with vasectomy uptake. Moreover, within-affiliation differences by religious service attendance are not statistically significant. Our findings suggest that vasectomy differences across religious affiliations track closely with race, ethnic, and class differences, but Hispanic Catholics are religiously distinct.