In response to the “informed consent” bill the Kentucky House passed on January 28th, which requires women to consult a doctor–by video conference or in person–at least 24 hours before having an abortion, Kentucky state representative Mary Lou Marzian proposed a rather tongue-in-cheek bill of her own: a law requiring women to approve their husband’s request for Viagra, and making only married men eligible to receive the drug.
“I thought if we’re going to insert ourselves into women’s most private health care decisions, then we should insert ourselves into men’s most private health care decisions, as well,” Marzian told the New York Times.
This isn’t the first time Viagra has been linked to sexism and legal bias. Viagra had only been on the market for a few months before men whose insurance didn’t cover it began filing lawsuits—and yet almost no suits have been brought on behalf of women who have demanded similar coverage of birth control for decades, wrote researcher Debra Baker in a 1998 article for the American Bar Association.
A 1994 study by the Guttmacher Institute showed that only half of the large-group insurance policies covered contraceptives, even though 97% of them covered prescription drugs. In contrast, the majority of insurance plans have traditionally covered “male drugs,” such as those prescribed for prostate and urological issues, and even, sometimes, penile implants.
The argument for Viagra coverage is that it’s a medical drug that treats a medical condition, whereas contraceptives are considered “lifestyle drugs” that are not medically necessary—though Baker pointed out that many women take oral contraceptives for medical purposes, such as to prevent uterine bleeding.
Since Baker wrote her article, insurance for contraceptives has in fact greatly increased. President Obama’s Affordable Care Act included a contraceptive mandate that covered most forms of birth control, but this was weakened by the 2014 Supreme Court case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., which ruled that closely held for-profit organizations could not be forced to cover contraceptives for their employees.
