A TEXAS LAWMAKER has filed a satirical anti-masturbation bill to highlight what she sees as unfair anti-abortion legislation in the state.
Jessica Farrar, a Houston-based Democrat, says men should face the same “unnecessary” and “invasive” procedures women do.
Under the bill, men would be fined $100 (about €94) for masturbating. The Man’s Right to Know Act would also require men to wait 24 hours after an “initial health care consultation” to receive an elective vasectomy, colonoscopy or Viagra prescription.
Women in Texas have to wait for 24 hours between a consultation and receiving an abortion, and are required to have an ultrasound beforehand.
Speaking to the Texas Tribune, Farrar said the bill is “satirical” and she wants it to start a deeper discussion about reproductive health.
What I would like to see is this make people stop and think. Maybe my colleagues aren’t capable of that, but the people who voted for them, or the people that didn’t vote at all, I hope that it changes their mind and helps them to decide what the priorities are.
The legislation would also let doctors invoke their “personal, moralistic, or religious beliefs” if they wished to refuse to perform a vasectomy or prescribe Viagra.
Farrar added that if a man’s semen is not used to create a pregnancy, “then it’s a waste … because that semen can be used — and is to be used — for creating more human life”.
“Men have to answer for their actions and so forth. So if there’s going to be an emission, it would have to be done in a hospital where the semen could be preserved for future pregnancies or it would be directly deposited into the vagina of a woman,” she said.
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