So you want to buy cigarettes - are you pregnant, ma'am?

[aephi alum]

I recently saw a proposal that would seek to better educate women about the dangers of smoking during pregnancy - premature birth, low birth weight, etc. All in all, not a bad idea.

However, one of the provisions of the proposal was that whenever a woman of childbearing age wants to buy cigarettes, the merchant must ask her if she is pregnant, and if she answers in the affirmative, the merchant must provide her with educational materials about the harm that smoking during pregnancy can do to a fetus. Merchants who fail to comply would be penalized. (It's unclear whether the merchant could still sell the cigarettes to the pregnant woman.)

This is not a proposed law, but rather a proposal for a policy for a particular company that manufactures cigarettes.

Discuss...