Texas state Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) is a little tired of all of the time and attention her male counterparts pay to legislating women’s bodies. She’s decided to submit Texas House Bill 4260.
The purpose of this chapter is to express the state's interest in promoting men's health; ensure Texas men experience safe and healthy elective vasectomies, Viagra utilizations, colonoscopies procedures, and men's health experiences; ensure a doctor's right to invoke their personal, moralistic, or religious beliefs in refusing to perform an elective vasectomy or prescribe Viagra; and promote fully- abstinent sexual relations or occasional masturbatory emissions inside health care and medical facilities, as a means of the healthiest way to ensure men's health.
State Rep. Farrar cribbed the entire bill—titled the “Man’s Right to Know Act”—from similar legislation created to control women.
"A lot of people find the bill funny," Farrar said in a phone interview. "What's not funny are the obstacles that Texas women face every day, that were placed there by legislatures making it very difficult for them to access healthcare."
A man would face a $100 penalty for each emission made outside of a vagina or medical facility. Such an emission would be considered "an act against an unborn child, and failing to preserve the sanctity of life," according to the legislation.
If anyone needs to wait 24 hours to “think” about some decisions, state Rep. Farrar thinks it’s some of her male colleagues—not women going in for elective procedures.
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For example, the 24-hour waiting period mirrors a law passed in Texas in 2011, which forces women to have an ultrasound at least 24 hours before an abortion, according to Planned Parenthood. Farrar told the Texas Tribune this waiting period “messes with women’s heads.”
Her bill would also require men seeking those procedures to receive a booklet of informational materials titled “A Man’s Right to Know.” It “must contain medical information related to the benefits and concerns of a man seeking a vasectomy, Viagra prescriptions or a colonoscopy.”
She’s trying to do her job around a bunch of zealots and idiots like Republican Rep. Tony Tinderholt who proposed a bill that would charge both the abortion provider and the woman receiving an abortion with murder. You read that right. So to state Rep. Farrar, we support your fight against the saddest examples of the male gender.