Women's Rights & Issues
Related: About this forumVirginia’s Proposed Ultrasound Law Is an Abomination
Under the new legislation, women who want an abortion will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason. Wheres the outrage?
By Dahlia Lithwick|Posted Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, at 6:57 PM ET
A Virginia law would require a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound, whether medically necessary or not.
This week, the Virginia state Legislature passed a bill that would require women to have an ultrasound before they may have an abortion. Because the great majority of abortions occur during the first 12 weeks, that means most women will be forced to have a transvaginal procedure, in which a probe is inserted into the vagina, and then moved around until an ultrasound image is produced. Since a proposed amendment to the billa provision that would have had the patient consent to this bodily intrusion or allowed the physician to opt not to do the vaginal ultrasoundfailed on 64-34 vote, the law provides that women seeking an abortion in Virginia will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason. I am not the first person to note that under any other set of facts, that would constitute rape under state law.
Whats more, a provision of the law that has received almost no media attention would ensure that a certification by the doctor that the patient either did or didnt avail herself of the opportunity to view the ultrasound or listen to the fetal heartbeat will go into the womans medical record. Whether she wants it there or not. I guess they were all out of scarlet letters in Richmond.
So the problem is not just that the woman and her physician (the core relationship protected in Roe) no longer matter at all in deciding whether an abortion is proper. It is that the physician is being commandeered by the state to perform a medically unnecessary procedure upon a woman, despite clear ethical directives to the contrary. (There is no evidence at all that the ultrasound is a medical necessity, and nobody attempted to defend it on those grounds.) As an editorial in the Virginian-Pilot put it recently, Under any other circumstances, forcing an unwilling person to submit to a vaginal probing would be a violation beyond imagining. Requiring a doctor to commit such an act, especially when medically unnecessary, and to submit to an arbitrary waiting period, is to demand an abrogation of medical ethics, if not common decency.*
more: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/02/virginia_ultrasound_law_women_who_want_an_abortion_will_be_forcibly_penetrated_for_no_medical_reason.html
valerief
(53,235 posts)atreides1
(16,094 posts)Just the areas inhabited by the Xtian Taliban and the Pro-Rape, Pro-Incest Party(Republicans).
valerief
(53,235 posts)HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)PP and NOW join in a suit. You have a right to refuse any and all medical precedures even those which will result in your death. Unnecessary medical procedure? Oh, yeah! Is this just for a surgical abortion? What about a chemical abortion in the very early weekis? How would they even KNOW in that case? Doctor gives the woman pills, she goes home, and takes them.
Incidentally, Florida passed this too.
kdmorris
(5,649 posts)Sadly, I live in Florida and no amount of fighting it stopped the law from going into effect last Oct. Not only are women who are planning to get an abortion (already more expensive than most poor women can afford) required to have an ultrasound, but they are required to pay for it, too.
That makes it basically unaffordable for any poor woman in Florida. So, they will end up having more children and the Republicans will then revile them as "welfare queens". It's a vicious circle.
DCKit
(18,541 posts)just to make sure nobody (else) had fun and that it was for procreation only. In the meantime, they get their porn fix.
There's something seriously wrong with these folks.
dballance
(5,756 posts)The GOP crows about health care costs yet adds an unnecessary procedure to women's health care.
The GOP crows about keeping government out of our lives yet makes a medical decision for a woman and her doctor without their consent.
Surely this violates the 4th amendment. If a person's home and papers are sacrosanct a woman's vagina should be.
Otherwise GOP, bend over and let's check those prostates. It's for your own good.
dgibby
(9,474 posts)is what Virginia has become since the repubs have gained control of both houses and the governorship.
I was born and raised in Virginia, live here now, and love my hometown and state; however, I'll be the first calling for a nationwide boycott if this legislation passes. Since I live in an economically depressed area, this would really hurt, but "no pain, no gain".
rbixby
(1,140 posts)It seems to me like it would be pretty easy to just check the box saying you did it without actually doing it, you know?
GreenPartyVoter
(72,381 posts)progress2k12nbynd
(221 posts)Historically it's been the insurance companies butting their heads in between a female and her physician. Now it's going to be the state/federal government. I don't know that I prefer either...
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)Is the lecture and waiting period? I know an ultrasound would be done as a matter of course so the doctor could see precisely what, or WHERE, the problems are. Would the doctor have to LIE and tell the woman evrything is just fine? Imagine showing a woman, who wanted the pregnancy, an ultrasound of her fetus that had no brain???? Do you really think she would change her mind and still want to carry a dying fetus?
Tubal pregnancy? Vaginal ultrasound of the uterus? Hello? The pregnancy isn't IN the uterus. Again, another "lecture"? WAIT 24 hours with a tubal pregnancy? It could rupture in 24 hours.
Rape pregnancy of a young girl? Imagine how a 12 year old will feel being violated AGAIN with this vaginal ultrasound? Will it just be her viewing it or her parents also? Great FAMILY TIME. Imagine her PARENTS reaction? I can tell you if my husband had to do this, after the horror of his child being raped, he would not only want to kill the rapist, but that DOCTOR as well.
Just like those stupid Personhood Amendments, these people are not only heartless, but CLUELESS.