re: #6 Charles Johnson

Loesch is also pushing the latest right wing talking point about the Virginia ultrasound law hard — that the law does not mandate trans-vaginal ultrasound.

It’s true that the bill does not specifically use that phrase. However, the vast majority of abortions happen in the first trimester, and the only kind of ultrasound that is performed in the first trimester is an invasive trans-vaginal ultrasound. When you mandate ultrasound procedures for all women who seek abortions, this means that the majority of them will be forced to undergo this GOP state rape.

She’s deliberately misleading people again.

Actually, that’s not specifically true either. Most prenatal ultrasounds, even in the first trimester, are typical external ultrasounds. These are more than enough to see things like fetal heartbeat and so on, which is all that’s generally needed.

TVUS is used for very specific things, such as measuring exact cervical thickness or for very specific prenatal testing where precise measurements are needed. You wouldn’t use TVUS in pregnancy on any sort of routine basis because of the increased infective risk.

I don’t particularly care if the law mandates TVUS or not. The point of the law is to shame women, and the very principle of forcing an unnecessary medical procedure, imposing direct, heavy-handed state interference in the physician-patient relationship, is repugnant. To do so for no medical benefit and solely out of a desire to shame women is evil. And it doesn’t matter if the unnecessary procedure is invasive or not.