Kentucky state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian hopes to give the state's male-dominated House a taste of its own medicine after the recent passage of an abortion law that she thinks reeks of sexism. The law requires women to have a medical consultation 24 hours before having an abortion, so Marzian has proposed a bill that would require men to go through similar hurdles before receiving erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra, The New York Times reports:
Under the legislation by Ms. Marzian, a Democrat, men would have to navigate a series of obstacles before they could obtain erectile dysfunction drugs, like Viagra. Each man would be required to have two doctor visits, a signed-and-dated letter from his spouse providing consent and a sworn statement — delivered with his hand on a Bible — that he would use the drugs only to have sex with his spouse.Only married men would be eligible for the drugs. [The New York Times]
Of course, Marzian says, she doesn't expect the proposed bill to actually become law. She just wants to get her point across and "wake up women all over Kentucky." While the abortion law overwhelmingly passed, she hopes that this role reversal will allow men, who make up 80 percent of the House, to see how the new abortion law enables government interference in citizens' private lives.
"I have found that men are very touchy about their sexual lives, and they think that is very personal," Marzian said. “So I wanted to hit a chord that men could understand how it feels to have a politician say, 'Well, you really don't know enough; you really need some education about this because you just don't know enough about your body; and we need to insert ourselves into your private life.'"
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