By BJ Bjornson
I have to say I find this every sort of amusing, and am somewhat disappointed that it failed.
To protest a bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion, Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) on Monday attached an amendment that would require men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.
"We need some gender equity here," she told HuffPost. "The Virginia senate is about to pass a bill that will require a woman to have totally unnecessary medical procedure at their cost and inconvenience. If we're going to do that to women, why not do that to men?"
The Republican-controlled senate narrowly rejected the amendment Monday by a vote of 21 to 19, but passed the mandatory ultrasound bill in a voice vote. A similar bill in Texas, which physicians say has caused a "bureaucratic nightmare," is currently being challenged in court.
Of course, as PZ notes, even this isn�t exactly fair:
What? No lecture about their manly responsibilities, no waiting period, no efforts to redirect these men looking for Viagra towards ineffective treatments? This is hardly fair. But it is a good first step.
And how about spousal or parental consent? Limited access? Religious exemptions for those who don't want to give out the prescriptions? After all, we don�t want to appear biased here, do we?
In any case, it is always nice when someone can think of a fun way to point out bias and hypocrisy, and this is a good example of that.
Thanks for catching this, BJ. I saw it in the Twitter timeline and was gonna post it but forgot. Anyway, your headline is way better than any I could have thought up.
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