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.

Here is the bill:

Abortion; informed consent. Requires that, as a component of informed consent to an abortion, to determine gestation age, every pregnant female shall undergo ultrasound imaging and be given an opportunity to view the ultrasound image of her fetus prior to the abortion. The medical professional performing the ultrasound must obtain written certification from the woman that the opportunity was offered and whether the woman availed herself of the opportunity to see the ultrasound image or hear the fetal heartbeat. A copy of the ultrasound and the written certification shall be maintained in the woman’s medical records at the facility where the abortion is to be performed. This bill incorporates SB 279 (Smith).

leg1.state.va.us

That bill also says that it passed both the House and Senate so I’m assuming it’s already law. I thought I read the House walked out today, but here it says it passed.

At any rate, it certainly mandates the ultrasound. It doesn’t mandate viewing the pictures, but this Slate article says:

What’s 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 didn’t “avail herself of the opportunity” to view the ultrasound or listen to the fetal heartbeat will go into the woman’s medical record. Whether she wants it there or not. I guess they were all out of scarlet letters in Richmond.

Would a woman know she had the right to deny seeing these pictures if she didn’t ask?

It’s all pretty horrifying.