State Sponsored Rape in Alabama

[DearAbby]

WASHINGTON -- Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) said Sunday morning that he has just learned about the transvaginal ultrasound bill pending in the state legislature and has not studied it.

The Alabama Senate is slated to start debating the controversial legislation as early as Tuesday after the bill passed the health committee last week. The bill -- similar to one just amended in the Virginia legislature -- requires women to undergo an ultrasound prior to receiving an abortion. It says either an external or transvaginal ultrasound would need to be performed, and that women would not have a decision as to which procedure would be used. Transvaginal ultrasounds are needed to detect an embryo in the earliest weeks of pregnancy.

While the issue has received national publicity due to the Virginia ultrasound bill, Bentley said he did not know about the Alabama bill.

"I just read about it this morning," Bentley told The Huffington Post after a meeting of the National Governors Association Health and Human Services Committee in Washington on Sunday.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/26/alabama-ultrasound-bill-governor-robert-bentley_n_1302298.html

I had heard last night the Alabama legislator who wrote the bill will be amending it to give women a choice, wand penetration or heavy petting with jelly. You get to decide gals!

[seabeyond]

1. it would leave me to believe they are encouraging women to wait a while

before having an abortion to ensure they receive the jelly on the belly ultrasound.

[DearAbby]

2. More states moving to require ultrasound before abortion

Virginia officials backed off last week from requiring vaginal ultrasounds before abortions, but state legislators are still expected to pass a bill that mandates abdominal ultrasounds and adds other significant requirements for women seeking abortions.

In recent years, this common diagnostic tool has taken a greater role in abortion-related legislation. Seven states require ultrasounds before abortions. Twenty states regulate some aspect of ultrasound exams, including requiring abortion providers to give women the option to view the image or listen to the fetal heartbeat if an ultrasound is performed.

Similar legislation is pending in 11 other states. If all of the measures pass, more than half of the states will have laws governing ultrasound exams before abortions. “I think we’re in the middle of a wave of ultrasound bills,” said Elizabeth Nash, a policy analyst with the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health.

In most states that require ultrasounds, as will be the case in Virginia, women must wait at least 24 hours between abortion counseling and the procedure and make at least two trips — one for the counseling and ultrasound, and another for the abortion.


http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/27/news/nation/more-states-moving-to-require-ultrasound-before-abortion/

[DearAbby]

3. Wave of Ultrasound Bills About Humiliating Abortion Seekers

More reading

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/02/27/wave-of-ultrasound-bills-about-humiliating-abortion-seekers/