Texas Democrat proposes rectal exams for men who want Viagra and a fine for masturbation

A Democratic Texas legislator has called for men who want the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra to be subject to a rectal exam and for male masturbation to be punishable with a $100 fine.

According to the Dallas Morning News, state Rep. Jessica Farrar based her bill is a "satirical version of a Texas law passed in 2011 that requires women to have a sonogram and hear a detailed description of the fetus before getting an abortion. Those rules are outlined in a booklet produced by the state called 'A Woman's Right to Know.'"

Farrar's bill, titled "A Man's Right to Know" calls for "a $100 fine for 'unregulated masturbatory emissions'" and for patients to "undergo a digital rectal exam to get a vasectomy, a colonoscopy or a Viagra prescription."

"A lot of people find the bill funny," Farrar said to the Houston Chronicle. "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 health care."

"A Man's Right to Know" explains that for men to waste seminal fluid by masturbating is "an act against an unborn child" that fails to show "respect for the sanctity of life."

Fines collected, Farrar stipulated, will be directed to the Department of Family and Protective Services to pay for childcare.

The Morning News explained that Farrar is pushing back against Republicans in the state legislature who have mounted an all-out assault on women's healthcare, shuttering reproductive health clinics across the state.

"The Texas Capitol has been churning out anti-abortion legislation for years," wrote Julieta Chiquillo. "But the state's conservatives were dealt a blow last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that two provisions of a 2013 Texas law were unconstitutional. One would have required abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at hospitals, and another would have made clinics adhere to standards of ambulatory surgical centers."

The mortality rate for pregnant women has doubled in Texas since Republicans began their campaign to limit reproductive choice, making it the most dangerous place in the developed world to have a baby, particularly for women of color.