A bill that could be mistaken for an April Fool's joke has just taken the first steps to becoming law in the state of Texas. 'The Man’s Right to Know Act' seeks to fine men $100 if they are caught masturbating outside the confines of approved medical institutions. The Act just received the first reading in the state's House of Representatives.
Bill comes as response to abortion debates across country
Introduced by Representative Jessica Farrar, a Democrat from Houston, the bill is a satirical motion to draw attention to male politicians who feel it within their moral and ethical boundaries to create laws around women's bodies.
If approved, Bill 4620 would legislate a man's reproductive rights in much the same way many jurisdictions regulate a woman's access to abortion and contraception. Now that the bill has passed first reading, it will be become the concern of the Texas State Affairs Committee.
The bill states male patients would not be able to seek any compensation should a doctor refuse to perform a vasectomy or prescribe Viagra, both common office practices currently. According to the excerpts of the bill, doctors would be able to refuse any "men's health procedure due to their personal, moralistic, or religious beliefs." Should a doctor agree to perform an elective vasectomy or colonoscopy, or prescribe medically-unnecessary Viagra, the patient must first undergo a rectal MRI and digital exam of the rectum at their own cost.
Men would also receive detailed information and diagrams about each procedure, similar to the information booklets women are forced to accept prior to an abortion.
Laws created around male masturbation pertain to the preservation of "the sanctity of life," as all ejaculate fluids emitted by men within approved medical facilities will be saved and frozen to allow for the future impregnation of the man's wife.
Should the bill be passed into law, which even Farrar agrees is unlikely to occur, men would be fined $100 for each time they choose to ejaculate independently and away from a vagina.
Representative hopes the bill sparks intelligent thought and debate
Farrar has been an out-spoken women's rights activist in the Texas House of Representatives, a state that has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
During the current session, lawmakers in the state have tabled multiple pieces of legislation that would force women to arrange for the cremation or burial of aborted fetal tissue and that would seek to have abortion doctors and women seeking the procedure charged with murder.
Upon filling her bill, Farrar told the Texas Tribune she hopes to start constructive debate about what should be of priority to elected officials. "What I would like to see is this make people stop and think," she explained. She added that while she feels her colleagues are likely stubbornly locked into their opinions on the matter, she still has hope for the people who elected them. "...I hope that it changes their mind and helps them to decide what the priorities are"
