Minnesota Senator Who Sponsored Vetoed Anti-Abortion Pill Bill Calls Viagra A ‘Drug For Life’
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) has vetoed an anti-abortion bill that would have required a doctor to be present for a woman to take the abortion-inducing drug RU-486, effectively banning “tele-med” abortions and disproportionately affecting women in rural communities. Dayton wrote in his veto letter that patient safety should always be a concern, but “a veto is warranted on legislation because it is driven by a specific political ideology rather than a broad-based concern for protecting all patients.”
Indeed, during debate about the legislation, a Democratic state senator asked why RU-486 should be regulated instead of erectile dysfunction medication. Sen. Paul Gazelka (R), the bill’s sponsor, said Viagra is a “wonderful drug” that “helps create life.” RH Reality Check’s Robin Marty asked Gazelka to clarify his comments about Viagra, and he said in response:
"comparing Viagra to RU-486 was comparing apples and oranges or more like comparing life and death. Viagra is a wonderful medical advancement in that can help couples with sexual disfunction issues…it can even help in producing life. RU486 always destroys life by taking the life of the unborn child."
Gazelka did not respond to Marty’s questions about whether he would sponsor a bill to collect information about men who are prescribed Viagra, similar to “databases created in various other states to gather information on women who obtain abortions.”
Gazelka’s bill and his ensuing comments about Viagra highlight the unfair burden placed on women who seek abortions and related health care. State regulations continue to add additional hurdles women must overcome to access abortions and contraception, while no similar measures block the availably of Viagra for men.
Source: http://thinkprogress.org/health/201
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) has vetoed an anti-abortion bill that would have required a doctor to be present for a woman to take the abortion-inducing drug RU-486, effectively banning “tele-med” abortions and disproportionately affecting women in rural communities. Dayton wrote in his veto letter that patient safety should always be a concern, but “a veto is warranted on legislation because it is driven by a specific political ideology rather than a broad-based concern for protecting all patients.”
Indeed, during debate about the legislation, a Democratic state senator asked why RU-486 should be regulated instead of erectile dysfunction medication. Sen. Paul Gazelka (R), the bill’s sponsor, said Viagra is a “wonderful drug” that “helps create life.” RH Reality Check’s Robin Marty asked Gazelka to clarify his comments about Viagra, and he said in response:
"comparing Viagra to RU-486 was comparing apples and oranges or more like comparing life and death. Viagra is a wonderful medical advancement in that can help couples with sexual disfunction issues…it can even help in producing life. RU486 always destroys life by taking the life of the unborn child."
Gazelka did not respond to Marty’s questions about whether he would sponsor a bill to collect information about men who are prescribed Viagra, similar to “databases created in various other states to gather information on women who obtain abortions.”
Gazelka’s bill and his ensuing comments about Viagra highlight the unfair burden placed on women who seek abortions and related health care. State regulations continue to add additional hurdles women must overcome to access abortions and contraception, while no similar measures block the availably of Viagra for men.
Source: http://thinkprogress.org/health/201
Oh for God's sake. RU486 prevents pregnancy from happening in the first place. It is not an abortion pill. There is no life to take away.
Stop. It. Already.
Every sperm is needed, in your neighbourhood!
I'm hoping to become a doctor, and I'd be quicker in many ways to prescribe RU486 or BC than Viagra or similar meds. Wanna know why, ontd_p? Erectile dysfunction in men is very often a sign of heart/vascular disease, and I'd want to deal with that underlying cause with my patients. A perfectly healthy woman can want RU486, and the hormones in BC are treatment - not just symptom management - for women who are prescribed it for PCOS, etc.
...“a veto is warranted on legislation because it is driven by a specific political ideology rather than a broad-based concern for protecting all patients.”
THANK YOU, Gov. Dayton. Can we keep saying that, really really loudly?
This man is an idiot.
~Men get to have all the sex they want, get aid for it, no consequences, and that's the way it should be? Check
~Women's sole purpose in having sex is reproduction and they should not be allowed to have sex for pleasure, and are terrible, immoral people if they want to enjoy it and not solely bear babies for the menz? Check.
Yep, more of the usual bullshit. I'm so tired of this, I can't even tell you.
Edited at 2012-05-02 03:46 pm (UTC)
So the forcible creation of unwanted children is "life" and the real joy that comes from living the life you want to live and caring for the children (and adults) already in the world is some inconvenience that gets in the way?
What are we, a fucking anthill?
No, wait, that would give too much power to the people actually getting pregnant. But fuck it, this guy's view of people as drones to just accomplish an arbitrary workload and purpose that he's stuffed into the mouth of his God . . . people who want to call themselves pro-life ought to refer to my quote from the Afghani women poets thread yesterday about life and existence not being the same thing.
Considering that the average age of the man taking Viagra is in his 50s, I feel that those men are probably already in a position where their sperm isn't as viable due to age & health issues. So when it comes to Viagra helping men "make life," I disagree. The older a man gets the less viable his sperm is anyway, so even if he could get it up normally his sperm might not implant.
If Viagra is a pro-life drug because it can help get sperm out of one body and into another body, any act which destroys or wastes sperm is an anti-life act. Masturbation that ends with the ejection of semen anywhere other than in a sperm bank is therefore an anti-life act. If they want a pro-life nation, they have to ban masturbation that ends with the ejection of semen.
Ugh.
I just want to stomp on his old shriveled balls.
No, it doesn't. How stupid are these people? It helps erectile tissue stay engorged with blood. If a man is infertile, it won't do jack to produce sperm. All it's good for- not that that's bad- is enabling sexual activity. No effect on fertility.