Senator Janet Howell Attaches Rectal Exam Amendment To Anti-Abortion Bill In Virginia

This is pretty badass and hilarious.

The Virginia legislature is trying to pass a bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion. According to CBS:

The legislation would require all women seeking abortions to have an ultrasound image taken to determine the gestational age of the fetus. It says each patient must be given the opportunity to see the image or hear the fetal heartbeat, but not required to do so.

After the ultrasound, women who live less than 100 miles from the medical facility would have to wait at least 24 hours before having the abortion except in the event of a medical emergency. Women who live more than 100 miles away would have to wait only two hours.

Senator Janet Howell didn’t think this was fair.

So, she proposed an amendment that would require men to to undergo a digital rectal exam and cardiac stress test before being treated for erectile dysfunction.

She told the Huffington Post:

The Virginia senate is about to pass a bill that will require a woman to have totally unnecessary medical procedure at their cost and inconvenience. If we’re going to do that to women, why not do that to men?

Unfortunately, in the end, the amendement didn’t pass. It was narrowly rejected by a vote of 21 to 19. It should be noted that there are only 7 women in the Virginia senate. 6 of them voted in favor of Senator Howell’s amendment.