A Texas state legislator has introduced a bill to fine men for masturbating and require them to undergo counseling before being allowed to obtain a prescription for Viagra or receive other health services. The bill is purportedly in response to laws restricting abortion.
The bill, introduced by Representative Jessica Farrar (D-Houston), would impose a $100 fine for “masturbatory emissions” that take place outside a woman’s vagina or a hospital. Farrar’s bill defines such actions as “an act against an unborn child, and failing to preserve the sanctity of life,” according to the Hill.
The bill would also give doctors the right to refuse men services such as vasectomies, colonoscopies, and other procedures based on a doctor’s “religious objections.” Additionally, the bill forces patients looking for these procedures to wait 24 hours before receiving them. Farrar would also commission a pamphlet entitled “A Man’s Right to Know,” which would be required reading for male patients.
Along with these requirements, doctors would be required to perform a “medically-unnecessary digital rectal exam” and an MRI before prescribing Viagra or performing colonoscopies.
The lawmaker claims the bill is all an effort at “satire” to highlight what she claims are the illicit requirements forced on women looking for an abortion.
“Although HB 4260 is satirical, there is nothing funny about current health care restrictions for women and the very real legislation that is proposed every legislative session,” Farrar wrote in a Facebook post last week. “Women are not laughing at state-imposed regulations and obstacles that interfere with their ability to legally access safe healthcare, and subject them to fake science and medically unnecessary procedures.”
Rep. Farrar is serving her eleventh term for District 148 and has focused on issues of women’s health, sexual assault, reproductive rights, discrimination, juvenile justice, and domestic violence.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.