Debate: In a world with equity of sexual and reproductive rights for men and women, there would be about the same number or more vasectomies as tubal ligations. YES or NO? | International Union for the Scientific Study of Population

• "In a gender equitable world, with equity of sexual and reproductive rights for men and women, we would expect that there would be about the same number or more vasectomies as tubal sterilizations among couples wanting to stop childbearing. Yes or no?"

Six debaters took turns debating alternately in favor of one of the two positions: Deborah Bateson, Priya Nanda and Logan Nickels argued "Yes" while Akanni Akinyemi, Joe Strong and Raquel Zanatta Coutinho argued "No”. The webinar was introduced by IUSSP Panel chair Stan Becker and moderated by Suzana Cavenaghi. Neetu John and Angela Akol facilitated the Q&A. Ambrose Akinlo provided a summary and reconciliation.

The webinar included Q&A with the audience, who were invited to cast their vote in favor of one of the arguments before and after the debate.

Results of the initial and post-debate polls:

In the initial poll, a slight majority favoured "yes" (56% vs. 44% "no"). In the post-debate poll, we see that none of the attendees who had initially said "no" changed their mind but 12 of 27 attendees who had initially voted "yes" changed their vote to "no". So the final result of the post-debate poll is "yes" 31% vs. "no" 69%.