Say goodbye to creampies.
Yes, thanks to the Supreme Court’s archaic rollback of women’s reproductive rights, these types of scenes—when a man finishes inside of a woman—just became some of the riskiest to perform. And America’s really going to miss them, as the term “creampie” consistently ranks among the top ten Pornhub searches in the United States.
Sure, porn stars have always faced a certain amount of risk. STIs are an occupational hazard on any given day despite safety protocols and self-mandated industry testing every two weeks. But no one’s thinking about pregnancy. Until now. Without the constitutional right to an abortion, a right that has been upheld for nearly half a century, what happens if birth control fails? Adult actresses are uniquely positioned to confront this sudden lack of bodily autonomy.
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Adult entertainment is a legally regulated business in California, though many of its stars reside outside the state in places where abortion is now illegal or severely restricted. If a performer did get pregnant on set, Attorney Corey D. Silverstein, who represents some of the largest content creators in the adult business, says it’s unlikely to be considered a workplace accident. These are independent contractor relationships, with producers using a release of liability along with standard releases on set, and as Silverstein points out, “Proper releases already have protections in place, so they are not liable for this type of incident.”
This puts the onus of accidental conception on the adult actress, no matter what state she lives in.
“If a woman wants to go and get an abortion in a state where it’s legal there is nothing that the state she resides in can do to stop her. It’s unconstitutional,” says Silverstein. “The right to travel is protected under the privileges and immunities clause in the Fourteenth Amendment, and I don’t think the Supreme Court would take away the privileges and immunities clause. Is it possible a state passes a law like this? Sure, but I don’t think it would be enforceable.”
Nonetheless, adult actresses are terrified, since in their line of work it’s possible to get pregnant on the job.
With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, a surprising number of women in the adult industry are weighing their options of self-preservation in the form of medical sterilization—a permanent surgical procedure known as getting your “tubes tied.”
“I’ve had passing thoughts about tubal ligation for the sake of a permanent solution, which isn’t something I would ever choose to do previously,” reveals adult actress Violet Doll. “I was in a very abusive relationship as a teen. Without access to abortion, I would’ve felt even more trapped.”
The 2021 AVN Star of the Year (the Oscars of porn) recipient stands by her younger self’s choice to end the pregnancy without any regrets. “Considering my situation, abortion saved my life. I believe it’s part of what gave me the courage to leave. It was a reminder that I control my body. Women have lost a right that in part saved me,” she says.
Concerned that access to birth control may be next, as alluded to by Justice Clarence Thomas in his concurring opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, 28-year-old adult performer Avery Jane has begun to consider her future options. “I plan to look into doctors for a more permanent sterilization solution,” states Jane. “I don’t want children and need to make sure I can continue to work and live my life without the fear that birth control will one day be taken away too.”
Unfortunately, sterilization-seeking adult women of child-bearing age are often denied and met with resistance from doctors refusing to take them seriously. Stephanie Eild has spoken with six different doctors, all of whom tried to discourage her from the procedure in one way or another. You’re too young, they said. What if you change your mind? What if you get married and your husband wants to have children?
“I would absolutely love to get my tubes tied, however, because I am so young without children, finding a doctor to do the procedure has been difficult,” offers the 32-year-old erotic content creator. “For the time being, I have stopped working with other male models. I would love to continue to work with models if they can prove that they’ve had a vasectomy.”
As extreme as this sounds, so too is being told you’re a human incubator without a right to your own womb, forced to grow another body inside of your own without any regard for your mental, physical or financial state.
At only 22 years old and with 200 scenes under her belt—as well as award nominations for hottest newcomer—Arietta Adams is reconsidering what types of scenes she’ll continue to perform in. These choices will undoubtedly impact her career trajectory and choices with serious financial ramifications. “I stopped getting creampied and will never get creampied again…I want to be secure in that if I happen to get pregnant on set, I will be able to terminate the pregnancy. I do not want a porn baby,” exclaims Adams. “This pushes me to do more girl/girl work because girls can’t get me pregnant.” (Girl/girl pays significantly less than traditional boy/girl scenes.)
Though widely used within the adult industry, birth control is not 100% effective nor can it be assumed every performer is on it. Oral contraceptives, for example, commonly known as “the pill,” have a typical use failure rate of 9 percent. Remove human error and the efficacy increases to 99 percent, but few people rigidly take a pill at the same time every single day for years.
Sometimes accidents happen.
“I went to the doctor because I was sick and he said, ‘You’re pregnant.’ I started laughing because from the time I’d first gotten my period I was told I was abnormal and couldn’t get pregnant,” recalls Anastasia Rose. “I had an abortion in 2018 and all I can think about is, what if that was in 2022? It was a porn baby, and I didn’t think it was fair to the child to have to explain that.”
Even so, getting an abortion was a tough but necessary choice for Rose, and one she had told very few people about—until now.
Though she’s on birth control, given her past experience, Rose admits that doing a creampie scene now, living in a state where abortion access is restricted, would require far more consideration and has given her a “newfound fear.”
Set baby accidents are few and far between, however even a 1% chance has become a risk too great to bear. Erring on the side of caution, Skye Blue has called it quits on creampie scenes—unless they’re fake. “My whole job revolves around sex, and now it’s being attacked because the government is only viewing it as a reproductive act, not an act of pleasure [or entertainment],” notes Blue. “I’ve already decided that I won’t be doing any more real creampies. I don’t want to be tied to anyone I have sex with for the rest of my life just because one of their little swimmers made it to the egg.”
Indeed, it is an invasion of privacy and a violation of liberty to allow the government to dictate how a woman can and cannot use her own womb. Her body, her choice.
As the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg said to the Senate Judiciary Committee at her confirmation hearing: “The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.”
