Making a Point...But Not Really

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A Kentucky state senator, on the heels of the informed consent bill, introduced a bill that required a man to get permission from his wife before he can obtain the ED drug Viagra. Mary Lou Marzian, a representative of Louisville, said that she was making a point by filing the bill. Her point, she said, is that the men in the state legislature wouldn't stand for a moment for the government interfering in their private, personal sex lives the way the government does with abortions. The point is, she's not making her point. One of the longstanding "rallying cries" of pro-choice proponents is "keep the government out of my womb" (or off of my body). However, these are the very same people who are advocating for government-funded health programs. She believes that the same government she finds so intrusive in a woman's "right to choose" should pay for abortions and birth control. She can't have it both ways: if the government isn't supposed to interfere in private affairs then it can't pay for it....because, as anyone who's ever received a penny from the government knows, you have to present a 600-page biography on government forms before you can receive that penny. The other issue here is that it's not a fair comparison. While I superficially agree with the idea that Viagra should be age restricted (unless he took an IED in the nether regions in Iraq, a 20-year-old guy doesn't have a necessity for ED drugs), that is a medication.. The side effects are relatively few, and most guys who, in the words of John Hiatt's song, let their little head do their thinking for them, don't care about them. Abortion, on the other hand, is a surgical procedure. When your body is worked on it's a different story, because things can go wrong. For instance, I had to sign a consent form to get a lousy cortisone shot in my wrist earlier this week, because they were sticking a needle into my body. Abortion is a surgical procedure that has side effects, including death from infection. (Remember the cry in the 70's about "keep abortion safe and legal"?). Licensed medical doctors make mistakes (which is why they're required to carry malpractice insurance), and nobody would undergo a medical procedure of any sort without knowing the risks. (If you've had knee replacement you know how extensive that can be when they tell you about the potential risks! I went to the class for my aunt before her knee replacement and I came out feeling like I'd just had a college course on the human knee!). If a 14-year-old girl has to has parental concent and sign a form to get her freaking ears pierced how much more should we care about her health when it comes to surgery? I understand the point Representative Marzian is trying to make with her "consent to buy Viagra" bill. Unfortunately, she doesn't see the point she's missing by trying to make the point: she advocates government intrusion by asking the government to pay for birth control and abortions.