Women who exercise their legal and constitutional right to make their own reproductive and medical decisions in Virginia will henceforth be subjected to what amounts to being raped by a robotic device that looks inside their uterus in the hopes that something in there looks like a person, which can be photographed and show to the woman to make her feel very bad about having an abortion.
I find it hard to believe that the women of Virginia are going to stand for this.
From the New York Times:
The 21-19 vote in the Republican-controlled Senate — mostly along party lines — came after Gov. Robert F. McDonnell asked legislators to soften the bill following protests on Capitol Square and mocking on national television, including “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “Saturday Night Live.”
The bill was changed. If the woman can prove that she was already raped recently, she does not have to get raped again by the Virgina Senate, Governor, and Republican Party. And Charles Colgan and Phil Puckett, the turn-coat Democrats that voted with the others.
Mockery here.
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For some reason I seem to recall something saying that the woman wouldn’t be forced to look at the picture, which seems to have been a “kind” gesture in their eyes. What that would mean though, is that the penetration is the object, not the ultrasound.
Exactly. It is nice of them to say, though, that you can look away while you are being raped.
I am not reading this the way you are. The bill does require an ultrasound, appalling enough, but by the new language of the bill that can be a jelly-on-the-belly abdominal ultrasound. Nobody will be forced to get (or administer) the invasive vaginal ultrasound.
Nathair,
As I understand it, the only way to get an ultrasound during early pregnancy (when most women seek an abortion, despite the bollocks anti-choice people like to say), is via an invasive vaginal ultrasound. The language of the bill doesn’t need to explicitly state it: it’s the only way to do it.
@Wilson, you would be right. I had a false pregnancy years back (where an unfertilized egg grew inside my uterus). I was nine weeks along when the pregnancy started to terminate. I had no clue that it was a false pregnancy so I went to the hospital when I started to bleed. They were unable to distinguish anything with a traditional belly type ultrasound and were forced to use the trans-vaginal sort. A very cold, hard probe about the size of an average penis was inserted in my vagina and some pressure was applied upward and the probe was adjusted till a clear picture was seen.
It is interesting to note that being nine weeks along, the doctor was still unsure if what he saw (the egg without anything inside) was indicative of a false pregnancy. He said the development just may not be far along enough but combined with the fact that I had started bleeding, I was probably terminating a false pregnancy. Even trans vaginal ultrasounds done early on are not that helpful.
I am not sure what purpose they think requiring an ultrasound in pregnancies that early would serve. What you see, looks nothing like anything you can empathize with.
“If the woman can prove that she was already raped recently, she does not have to get raped again by the Virgina Senate, Governor, and Republican Party.”
Prove how? To whom? A court of law? Because we all know how well *that* works. And meanwhile, while she’s gathering evidence to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that she was indeed raped, that little fetus is slowly and inexorably moving into the second or third trimester, thus putting even *more* burden on the lady.
Imagine a couple excitedly anticipating a pregnancy with their first child. Imagine this woman, too early for the infant to be viable, developing extremely lifethreatening pregnancy complications such as pulmonary hypertension of pregnancy, eclampsia or heart failure. Imagine that before terminating a much anticipated, anxiously awaited pregnancy, she is forced to look at an unltrasound so she ‘understands’ what she is doing….
Imagine a pregnant 12 year old girl, brutally raped…forced to look at an ultrasound, so she ‘understands’ what she is doing….