Women in the United States have long been neglected when it comes to medical care and research. It was not long ago that researchers were mostly studying the effects of various diseases and medical conditions exclusively in men. This happened with heart disease. It took years before the medical community started researching heart disease in women as well. The latest manifestation of this problem in the country has to do with reproductive rights and a woman’s right to choose. The efforts against reproductive rights are led mainly by Republican officials at every level of government from city councils and local judges to elected senators.
The decision passed down by the Supreme Court of the United States making abortion a legal medical procedure has caused controversy for many decades. It has enraged many religious people and Conservatives. It has resulted in a large amount of rhetoric and demagoguery. The legal status of abortion has even resulted in crimes. The lesser crimes include falsifying information as happened recently with heavily edited Planned Parenthood tapes. The major crimes include murder and arson as religious zealots attempt to kill the people providing the safe and legal medical procedure.
Recent efforts by religious lobbyists and Republicans have been far more insidious. Instead of attempting to directly overturn the Roe v. Wade decision in the courts, legislators have started using backdoor channels to deny women reproductive rights. These actions have managed to create entire states where only one or two Planned Parenthood locations or reproductive clinics are available to the entire population spread across hundreds of miles. They have also started to try to impose undue stress and hardship on women who want an abortion. This is what happened in Kentucky recently when bill SB4 was introduced. The bill would force women to go through counseling with a pro-life advocate and then wait 24 hours before having an abortion.
Democratic Representative Mary Lou Marzian from Louisville, Kentucky has had enough. The representative introduced her own bill that targeted the reproductive rights of men in the state. Her bill would force men to jump through ridiculous hoops in order to get erectile dysfunction medications. Only married men could get the drug. The man would have to bring along a note from his wife granting him permission to get something like Viagra. He must sign a pledge to use the drug only with his wife. He would then have to go through two meetings with doctors before finally being able to receive the drug. Marzian is obviously doing this to prove a point.
She has gone so far as to introduce a bill that would apply the same procedure women must go through to get an abortion to gun buyers. This second bill would force someone who wants to buy a firearm to go through anti-violence counseling by the families of gun violence victims and then wait to receive the weapon. Marzian’s actions are just one in a sea of many from frustrated women in government who are tired of having men dictate what they can and cannot do. Other women in state governments have proposed similar bills such as making male masturbation illegal to prove a point.
Sadly, the Kentucky legislature is made up of mostly white male Republicans or Conservatives. This means that none of her bills will likely ever be brought to the floor for a vote. It also means that the chance of changing the backward legislation that already exists in the state regarding women’s reproductive rights will probably stay in place for some time. The battle to allow women to control their own bodies and make their own medical choices is far from over in the country today.