So, you may be thinking to yourself, what is the big issue with tubal ligations? Why are women having such a difficult time getting approval for this procedure? Well, it seems that the big issue is doctors. Doctors are denying women because they believe that the women is too young, that they haven’t had enough children yet, that the women or husband may change their mind, or even if a husband or child passes away, they may want another child with a new husband or to replace the child that passed.

In most cases a “patient’s age, gravida/parity and her husband’s agreement/disagreement” are the factors that impact why a doctor refuses to approve women for the tubal ligation procedure (Lawrence, 106). Meaning that when a doctor looks into a woman’s case for wanting to have a tubal ligation performed they look at her husband opinion, the woman’s age, and how many children she already has the majority of the time.

Doctors are blocking women from receiving the procedure that they so badly desire for themselves, their family, and their reproductive health. When going up against doctors’ women are seeing crazy restrictions that keep them from getting the procedure. The largest blockades include, “spousal consent required by 79 percent of physicians who perform vasectomies and 50 percent of those who do female sterilizations. 32 minimum age (47 percent), a waiting period (39 percent), or a minimum number of children (30 percent)” (Riche 40). Though physicians are more likely to approve an older woman in her late thirties or early forties, because they believe the older woman is more capable of making big life altering decisions, they are still discriminating against younger women purley due to their misguided belief of lack of maturity (Goldrath, Kathryn, and Lauren B. Smith).

Women of younger ages are not being taken seriously by their healthcare providers, putting them at risk for something they do not want to happen to their bodies happen. Women are getting pregnant or having to take birth control to prevent pregnancy, when in reality they never really wanted the child in the first place. If a woman is able to get married, decide to go on birth control in the first place, and even other huge life decisions such as pick a certain career or even join the military without a large blockade in her way, why should she not be able to take her reproductive and bodily rights into her own hands and decide if she wants children or not?