Sloppy legislation affects us all. Words in legislation mean something. When bills become unamendable sacred cows, silly things happen – and we become victims of dumb law. Zealotry and untouchable idols drive sloppy legislation.
Three bills, driven by lobbyists and special interests, stand as beacons of the idiocy.
In a piece of legislation that would make Nathaniel Hawthorn blush, the Wyoming legislature required a woman to have a greased probe stuck up her private parts within 48 hours before being prescribed a chemical abortion. The bill, House Bill 64, became law when the legislature overrode the governor’s veto.
While the language of the bill is vague, the law requires an ultrasound with “consistent quality within standard medical practice.”
Vague language lets politicians sidestep what the law means. But, for early pregnancies, standard medical practice means a transvaginal ultrasound needs to be administered. The grease on the belly ultrasound does not work.
Instead of letting doctors and patients decide the course of treatment, the legislature has inserted itself in the doctor-patient relationship. Now the law in Wyoming says that to get an early-term chemical abortion, a woman has to be medically raped first.
I’ll bet the Wyoming legislature will soon be mandating public hangings for drug dealers, stretching people on the rack for blasphemy and holding people in stocks in the town square for jaywalking.
Physical torture under any name has no place in Wyoming law.
At any stage in this latest legislative session, did anyone stand up and say, “What have we become?”
Mandating mechanical rape is embarrassing and just plain wrong.
Switching gears: in a push to make sure off-label use for the horse dewormer, Ivermectin, is legal, the legislature passed House Bill 164, which says, a prescriber or pharmacist shall not face any adverse action from a health related licensing board, including disciplinary action, solely on the basis that a prescriber prescribed a United States food and drug administration approved prescription drug for off‑label indication.
Wyoming’s current drug laws make it illegal for any person to possess a controlled substance unless the substance was obtained directly from a valid prescription. By making doctor immune from any discipline for off-label uses of drugs, doctors can prescribe drugs for any purpose.
So if you want to build muscle mass, anabolic steroids are available without limitation. Perhaps Wyoming should develop a closet industry for performance enhancement drugs.
Even some recreational uses of drugs are now legal. If you want recreational ketamine or Rohypnol, call Dr. Feel Good.
If you can get an off-label prescription, have at it. Now the legislature has legalized the use of all non-schedule I or II recreational drugs so long as you can get a prescription for them – unless you are seeking a sex change or an abortion.
The third bill with ridiculous consequences is the Repeal Gun Free Zones, House Bill 172, which prohibits gun free zones. While the philosophy is generally good, the language of the bill is slovenly.
In a hospital, it is perfectly legal for hospital employees to tell you not to take metal objects with you into the MRI room. So, the radiation technologist can tell you to take off your belt, empty your pockets of knives, take out your piercings and take off your underwire bra.
Just a word of warning, the magnet in an MRI can pick metal up from across the room and if that metal is attached to you, violently suck you into the machine.
With the new gun free zones law, it is a crime punishable by one year in jail and a fine of $2000 for the technologist to tell you not to take your concealed firearm into the MRI suite.
And, in case you thought no one would be that stupid, there are a least two documented cases of people being hurt or killed by taking concealed firearms into the MRI suites.
How did these bills become law? Legislators who do not want to be labeled as gun grabbers or abortionists chose not to amend them – so we got crappy laws instead.
While the legislature is passing laws mandating some sort of medical treatment for people, I’m beginning to think certain legislators should be mandated to have an endoanal ultrasound to determine if a rectal cranial resection is necessary to cure a serious case of rectal cranial inversion syndrome.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 - 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
