SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — According to a research letter published in the JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) Health Forum, the number of young adults undergoing permanent sterilization, like vasectomies, rose following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Jonathan Stack, executive director at World Vasectomy Day, told KCAU-TV in Sioux City, “After Roe v. Wade and after the [Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization] ruling, there’s been a spike because I think people have become aware that something that they’d taken for granted doesn’t necessarily exist and now it wakes people up to their responsibilities.”

The organization World Vasectomy Day hopes a unique road trip in a mobile clinic will help end the stigma around male contraception. Dr. Esgar Guarin’s mobile vasectomy clinic is the first of its kind in the U.S. and is based right here in Iowa. Now, after years of staying in Iowa, Dr. Guarin will take his mobile vasectomy unit to surrounding states. The 2024 Heartland of America World Vasectomy Road Trip started on Earth Day and is expected to end after Mother’s Day. The goal, he says, is to complete 100 vasectomies.

Stack said that when Dr. Guarin and the vasectomy patients end up on the big screen, he hopes the audience learns a thing or two about the procedure and men’s responsibility for contraception. Stack hopes to have the film completed and out for audiences to see this fall.