Abortion Bill Amendment of the Day: 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.
[roanoketimes.]
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