Updated 09:55 AM EDT, Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Alaska Lawmaker Pushes to Install Pregnancy Tests in Bars to Prevent Fetal Alcohol Syndrome [Video]

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An Alaska state legislature who proposed to install state-funded pregnancy tests in restaurants and bars as a measure to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome is doubling down on his remarks.

Last week, Republican state Sen. Pete Kelly told the Anchorage Daily News that he plans to combat FASD by providing women with free pregnancy tests at places that serve alcohol, this way they can find out on the spot if they're pregnant before they start drinking.

Although the lawmaker's proposal was criticized for launching a war on women, Sen. Kelly announced that he plans to continue to push the idea, while fighting providing women with free birth control. According to him, contraception is not effective enough to prevent women who "binge drink" from becoming pregnant.

"If you have people who are binge drinking or chronic drinkers, we're hesitant to say 'use birth control as your protection against fetal alcohol syndrome,' because again, as I say, binge drinking is a problem," Kelly said on the Alaska Senate floor on Monday, reports the Huffington Post. "If you think you can take birth control and then binge drink and hope not to produce a [child with fetal alcohol syndrome], you may be very wrong. Sometimes these things don't work. Sometimes people forget. Sometimes they administer birth control improperly, and you might produce a fetal alcohol syndrome baby."

During a Daily News Q&A last week, Kelly said that to eradicate fetal alcohol syndrome, the state should install "kiosks and dispensers" with the tests in the restrooms of establishments that sell alcohol and that "birth control is for people who don't necessarily want to act responsibly."

Alaska Democratic Party executive director Kay Brown criticized Kelly's remarks, saying, "Pete Kelly's going all out with the War on Women, but from his defensive comments it looks like Alaska women may be winning," in a Monday statement.

Kelly, however, has denied charges that he's waging a "war on women."

"Turing an attempt to deal with the tragedy of FASD into such disgusting politics is pathetic," he wrote on his Facebook page. "I invite the political operatives out there to stop writing talking points and press releases and actually get involved in helping the people who suffer from this plague."

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