The Virginia state Senate went ahead today with a bill that would
require pregnant women to obtain an ultrasound prior to an abortion,
after rejecting a Democratic senator’s amendment that would have
required men to undergo a rectal exam and cardiac stress test prior to obtaining erectile dysfunction medication.
The amendment’s author, Fairfax County Democrat Janet Howell, said
she was merely trying to add “a little gender equality” to the bill.
“It’s requiring [women] to have unnecessary medical procedures, it’s
adding to the cost and it’s opening them up for emotional blackmail,”
she told her colleagues from the Senate floor. “And I was upset because
it’s disrespectful of doctors. It’s forcing them to perform procedures
they don’t think is necessary.”
She says she got the idea for the amendment after watching an
erectile dysfunction drug ad which listed the pill’s myriad side
effects.
“So, I said, it’s only fair, that if we’re going to subject women to
unnecessary procedures, and we’re going to subject doctors to having to
do things that they don’t think is medically advisory, well, Mr.
President, I think we should just have a little gender equity here,”
Howell said.
The amendment was ultimately defeated by a relatively narrow margin
of 21 to 19. Meanwhile, Senate Bill 484 moves forward to a final floor
vote tomorrow.