Texas Rep Equates Abortion With Colonoscopies in Satirical Bill Aimed at Pro-Life Laws

Rep. Jessica Farrar's attempt at satire only proves that she is willfully blind when it comes to issues of life, biology and basic human rights.

By Liberty McArtor Published on March 14, 2017

A proposed bill by a Texas state representative is the latest example of pro-choicers’ attempts to disregard science and dehumanize unborn life. 

The act proposed by Texas Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) Friday is a satirical twist on the state’s Woman’s Right to Know Act, which requires that women be informed of all their options and potential risks before an abortion. Dubbed the Man’s Right to Know Act, Farrar’s facetious legislation mandates that men provide similar informed consent before undergoing a vasectomy, colonoscopy or taking Viagra.

Farrar claims the purpose of her legislation is to highlight “the obstacles that Texas women face every day, that were placed there by legislatures making it very difficult for them to access health care.” In reality, the bill is an insensivite display of willful ignorance. 

Farrar Makes Light of Abortion By Equating It with Routine Medical Procedures

According to the Woman’s Right to Know Act, women must wait 24 hours after their initial consultation before going through with an abortion. Farrar’s Man’s Right to Know Act mandates that men must wait 24 hours before having a vasectomy, colonoscopy or taking a Viagra prescription. 

Farrar’s attempt to draw a parallel here would be laughable if it weren’t so insulting.

Farrar’s attempt to draw a parallel here would be laughable if it weren’t so insulting. The medical procedures that Farrar attempts to equate with abortion do not compare in terms of side effects or lifelong ramifications. Even vasectomies, though considered permanent, can be reversed. With an abortion, a human life that has already begun to form in the womb is destroyed. While a woman who has had an abortion can in most cases become pregnant again, the life destroyed can never be regained.

A more accurate comparison to a man getting a vasectomy, a colonoscopy or taking Viagra would be a woman undergoing tubal ligation, taking a birth control pill, or getting a colonoscopy herself. Out of those actions, only a tubal ligation requires a waiting period in Texas (30 days) — something Farrar doesn’t seem to be addressing with her satirical legislation.

Farrar’s bill goes on to mock the Texas requirement that women receive a sonogram before having an abortion. The bill states that men must undergo a “medically-unnecessary digital rectal exam and magnetic resonance imagining of the rectum before administering an elective vasectomy or colonoscopy procedure, or prescribing Viagra.” Such a sonogram for a man would indeed be unnecessary, since having a vasectomy, colonoscopy or taking Viagra do not involve terminating a human life — unlike abortion. 

Farrar Ignores Trauma Surrounding Abortion, Benefits of Waiting Periods

Farrar’s sarcastic comparisons make light of the emotional trauma that often surrounds an abortion. Many women experience Post Abortion Stress Syndrome, which can include feelings of depression and even thoughts of suicide. Pro-life and pro-choice sources differ regarding the frequency and causes of the syndrome, but both acknowledge its existence. Even Planned Parenthood’s website acknowledges that such emotional symptoms can occur after an abortion, and that having an abortion is an “important” decision — which would seem to justify a waiting period as short as 24 hours. 

In this ad for Planned Parenthood, one mother tells the story of how a Planned Parenthood physician actually suggested she wait before getting an abortion.

Abortion providers have been accused of taking advantage of emotionally unstable women, or pressuring them to have abortions in order to meet quotas.

“When I went in to see the actual physician, I was still a wreck,” the woman says in this video. “She took a look at me and said, ‘Something tells me that today is not the day. Go home, take a night to sleep on it, and then reschedule.'” But the woman didn’t reschedule. She decided to have her baby. Overcome with emotion, the woman goes on to say that she wishes she could thank the physician “for the role that she played in making me a mother.”

With this ad, Planned Parenthood is itself acknowledging (inadvertently?) that waiting periods can be beneficial — a notion supported by the fact that abortion providers have been accused of taking advantage of emotionally unstable women, or pressuring them to have abortions in order to meet quotas.

Farrar Equates Unborn Babies With Human Cells

Further, the Man’s Right to Know Act would, according to the Texas Tribune, “fine men $100 for masturbating.” Farrar’s facetious bill goes on to mandate that since male “emissions” are capable of creating a pregnancy they must be done in a hospital “where the semen could be preserved for future pregnancies.”

With this mandate, Farrar is continuing a longtime trend of pro-choicers to equate unborn human beings with mere cells or tissue, denying or ignoring evidence that life begins at conception. As Texas State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington) stated

I’m embarrassed for Representative Farrar. … Her attempt to compare [HB 4260] to the abortion issue shows a lack of a basic understanding of human biology. I would recommend that she consider taking a high school biology class from a local public or charter school before filing another bill on the matter.

Willfully Blind

Tinderholt is right to be embarrassed for Farrar. Even those who agree with her pro-choice stance should be embarrassed at this attempt to equate the potential for pregnancy with an actual, existing pregnancy, or compare the emotional and life-altering decision to have an abortion with having a colonoscopy or taking Viagra.

Farrar’s attempt at satire proves that she and the pro-choice cohort she represents are not merely tone-deaf, but willfully blind when it comes to issues of life, biology and basic human rights — both of women seeking an abortion and of their unborn children. 

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