Man's Health Bill Causes Statehouse Tension
Things continued to get a little personal Tuesday in the house chamber. Satirical legislation, filed to regulate how men handle their sexual lifestyle, caused a back-lash against the author of the bill.
The drama in the state house began when house bill 744 - legislation dealing with legal fees- came up for a vote.
"Rep Farrar, is this a satirical bill?” asked Dallas Republican Matt Rinaldi.
The controversy wasn't about the wording in that bill, but about others drafted by Representative Jessica Farrar. The questioning appeared to be a symbolic public flogging of the Houston Democrat.
"The arguments you heard today had nothing to do with policy, they had everything to do with, as I was told, putting a woman in her place, for speaking out,” said Farrar.
HB 4260 is the legislation that ruffled political feathers. Titled "A Man's Right To Know," it’s a satirical jab at current laws regulating abortion in Texas.
"And now when the tables were turned on them, they didn't like the idea of, they didn't like looking at the fact that they have put in invasive procedures on woman,” said Farrar.
Rep. Farrar's bill would allow doctors to refuse prescribing Viagra on religious beliefs. Mandate sonograms before performing a vasectomy or colonoscopy. Offer abstinence counseling and classify masturbation as an act against an unborn child with a civil fine of $100.
"If my colleagues are talking about, believing in the sanctity of life, and we are going to push measures that procreate life, well we can't be having recreational use of Semen, it has to be used for a purpose and that is to create life, whether at the moment or in the future."
The veteran lawmaker admits she filed her bill to make a statement.
"It's already accomplished it, I thought it was over, but we are talking about this today, because my colleagues resuscitated the issue when they decided they were gonna, these were the words passed on to me, put a woman in her place."
Those who objected to the men's health bill- and spoke to FOX 7 off camera said- the legislation simply crossed the line of decorum.
An effort was made to vote down Farrar’s legal fee bill to also make a statement. HB 744 survived, despite the close vote, and Farrar promised to remain defiant.
The Tuesday morning debate may be the only hearing the man's right to know bill will ever get. The legislation has not yet been assigned to a committee.