UPDATE
The Virginia Senate today passed precedent-setting legislation that would force women to have an ultrasound before having an abortion.
The 21-19 vote on an amended version of House Bill 462, sponsored by Del. Kathy J. Byron, R-Campbell marked a victory for anti-abortion advocates and the conservative wing of the Republican Party, which has been frustrated in recent days with the scuttling of bills aimed at restricting access, funding and length of time a woman may access abortion services.
Senators agreed to an amendment under which a victim of rape or incest who reports the attack would not have to undergo an ultrasound to get an abortion. The amendment means that the measure must go back to the House of Delegates to see if it agrees to the amendment.
Senate Republicans, with the help of two anti-abortion Democrats, held off stiff Democratic opposition and dissent in their own caucus to pass the bill. Democrats proposed a series of amendments that would have made ultrasounds optional or compelled insurance companies or the state to pick up the cost of the procedure. Only one amendment was approved.
A Senate panel had previously amended the measure so that a woman who is seeking an abortion could refuse a trans-vaginal ultrasound.
Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, was the lone Republican to vote against the bill. Two anti-abortion Democrats Sens. Charles J. Colgan of Prince William and Phillip P. Puckett of Russell voted for the bill. Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier who earlier struck her own version of the ultrasound bill, voted for the amended House measure.
Now it’s clear. This entire bill is in place to humiliate and punish women who get pregnant. Those who are pregant as a result of rape simply won’t have to have it. They are apparently innocent. I see no other way to interpret this misguided bill.
Women can refuse the trans-vaginal form of ultrasound. How is this going to work? So nothing shows and the information the state wants you to see isn’t visible. So the unnecessary medical test a woman has just paid for shows nothing.
So these are the dudes suing the federal government about having to pay for insurance? Give me a break. How about having to pay for unnecessary medical procedures before being granted the right to have a legal precedure? What alternate universe is this? When are the Virginia Republicans (and Senators Colgan and Puckett) going to just admit they want to control the women of Virginia. Those who are able will just go to DC and Maryland, if they are smart.
Meanwhile, those legislators will continue to make the Old Dominion a laughing stock and they will be forced out of office. This is an election year and they will have collateral damage for their efforts. Meanwhile…can they say, Strike Force!
It looks like Bob McDonnell called out the sniper team for a woman’s vigil the other night.
http://www.the-richmonder.com/2012/02/bob-mcdonnell-deploys-state-police-swat.html
Snipers for a peaceful protest? bok bok bok bok!
OMG, talk about over reaction, you have got to be kidding me. What a p_ssy move by the Govenor! Really? Really? I think its the supposed “pro life” that has killed people,not the pro choice advocates.
Retirement or Strike Force take-down–which will it be for the Honorable Senator Colgan?
I have no idea. I expect he won’t run again. Why your interest in Sen. Colgan?
There are lots of people who have been lined up and waiting for his position.
The person I would support aren’t state elected officials.
Let’t put it this way…I doubt he will run again and I doubt if he runs again that he would be elected.
He has an incredibly strong education record. That has protected him to some degree from his anti choice votes. I don’t think he can count on that in the future, should he chose to run.
Don’t get me wrong, I have respect for Senator Colgan and I appreciate all he has done for PWC and Manassas. However, I do not agree with or appreciate his ill-informed votes on reproductive issues. He is listening to Bob Marshall I guess. He votes his own personal beliefs rather than staying in touch with constituents.
In general, there is nothing else that can be done at this point. It is all up to Gov. McDonnell and he will sign. Strike Force will have to deal with the legislators and the American people will have to determine how well McDonnell wears the “Probe Vice President” nomenclature.
Does it not strike anyone else as strange that if you are a rape or incest victim you don’t have to have the ultra sound? If one is really trying to determine gestational age of the fetus why should it matter how or why it got there?
Isn’t the point to determine if the fetus is within medical and legal guidelines?
It seems to me like a little punishment in there since some people don’t have to have it.
Moon, I too found the exclusion somewhat of a contradtiction…my first thought was they are considering the mental health of the woman and since most of the major religions acknowledge abortion is ok in these two instances, the Richmond Kiddies wanted to protect the woman’s choice. My next thought was they are full of it since the bill still exists.
I enjoyed the pictures of the SWAT Team and protestors. I noticed the protestors were considerate as they stood on the walk as to not block egress of it – a wide enough path that if I was walking down that side, I could still get by. Talk about complying with rules and courtesy!
@Ray, think how much more considerate they would have been if they had known about that swat team. 🙄
Here is what one guy by the name of Peter J. Stanton, a local chiropractor has to say:
“I assume that the issue is the ultrasound before abortion? You don’t need a tranvaginal U/S after 8 weeks, only before because the fetus is too small. A transvaginal is abut as invasive as a pap smear and much less invasive than an abortion. Usually you DO have to have a workup and digital prostate exam before viagra is prescribed. I don’t enjoy it but it’s for my own health. MILITARY: Your beloved military docs have decided to exclude chiros from service. You get me a position in a war zone and I’ll be there as will many others. I have treated hundreds of military over the yrs and the concensus is that perhaps 10% chose the military over other careers because of patriotism. The rest made a career choice. I’ve seen hundreds of hrs of WW1, WW2 Korean and Vietnam footage and am well aware of the terrible conditions on the So Pacific Islands, on small ships, carriers the Bataan death march, Hanoi Hilton, 120F weathr in Iraq etc.. and have read several dozen books on it. Todays military is volunteer. I respect what they do but they know the deal. If they don’t then the recuiters are lying to them. POVERTY: Most people who are poor are poor because they make stupid life choices because they were not taught how to make good ones. We took in 3 of them in the mid 90s and I am well aware of trailer parks, drugs addiction, ADC, WIC, Food Stamps Medicaid etc.. Well meaning people like you have made the problem generational. Nice job sir! You gave a bottle of vodka to a wino. All give away programs need to be incentive based or they will simply breed more poverty and misery and that will be on you. You can’t hide behind the fact that you “meant well”. The system is failure and the people who crafted and support it are responsible for the misery it caused. We have more people on public assistance now than ever before all whining with an entitlement mentality. We are becoming a socialist nation and socialism breeds mediocrity. Yes we need a safety net for those who can’t do and rewards for wounded vets but for the rest on the dole, they need to get off their ass and produce vs reproducing.”
He, like most Republicans wants to blame liberals for all the world’s woes. He has even more to say, but it is the same r ant.
@George
I am not even sure what his point is. Maybe he should stick to cracking bones. The point should be that the ultrasound is an unwarranted invasion of someone’s personal space that is not needed for the procedure. Its medically unnecessary.
Colgan is wrong on this one and I am sorry that he chose to go against women. He won’t run again so it doesn’t matter. What this new womenstrike force will do if find a replacement that is focused on matters of the government and not a womans womb.
I’m still trying to figure out how all of this jives with “smaller, fiscally responsible, less regulatory government”.
Thumbs up, Steve. I agree. It doesn’t, in my world.
Its an unnecessary medical procedure that doesn’t jive with anything. Legislators need to stick to issues of governement, less of it in fact.
@Moon-howler
You got it Moon!
@Steve Thomas
Steve–that’s the irony of the whole thing. The governor was just explaining how this is information that a woman should have and that it is medically necessary. Since when is bullying women “medically necessary”?
Virginia’s founding fathers such as Washington, Jefferson, Henry and Lee would never, ever have approved of their beloved state’s intrusion into the lives of women. They would be ashamed of McDonnell.
You know, I thought of those dudes when Santorum was on his rant. They really were snobs. They certainly weren’t willing to turn loose something as important as the presidency to the common people, many who were simply under educated. Thus, the electoral college. Santorum needs a good history lesson.
Starry, I am having trouble separating all the people who want to control our lives. Money is power. Power is money. Women who have no control over their own reproduction have no power or economic advantage.
When I was a high school student, girls who got pregnant got booted. No more education. That is a very limiting condition to be in. Society was judgemental. Remember the dude from the other week with the aspirin. Then we wonder why women fought so hard for the right to contraception and yes, abortion. They aren’t stupid. They knew if they gave an inch they would go back. I am not making all this up.
The other day Cindy mentioned a southern authors workshop being offered by NOVA. I had not heard of any of the authors so I researched them. One was a woman named Dorothy Allison who wrote a novel (autobiographical I think) called Bastard out of Carolina. You can see it on Youtube in parts. It starts off as a teenage mother has her baby’s birth certificate stamped ‘illegitimate.’ The movie was depressing. It was full of women being trapped in a world where they had no earning power, they were often abused and the baby grew into a child who was sexually and physically abused. But those things happen and women without ability to earn a real living are trapped in a world of dependence that involves all these things. Not everyone is lucky enough to meet Mr. Right.
Another author who accurately describes pregnancy for unmarried girls and women in the days pre Roe v. Wade is Ann Fessler whose book “The Girls Who Went Away” is a “should read”.
http://www.thegirlswhowentaway.com/
@George S. Harris
George,
If my understanding of current law is correct, a transabdominal ultrasound is conducted as a matter of course today, to determine gestational age. If a transvaginal is required, it is a judgement call on the part of the doctor, and is between doctor and patient. Basically, the Governor’s position is “leave things as they are”. Look, I am opposed to abortion as a matter of my faith. Civil society has decided it will permit the practice with some restrictions. Things like parental notification get my support. This utlrasound requirement to me does little to restrict the practice, beyond making the process more humiliating or degrading. Like virginia fireworks…all flash, no bang. So what’s the point beyond grabbing some headlines, and stirring up the base on both sides, while turning off the center?
I have all the respect in the world for people who follow the teachings of their faith regarding abortion. Not all faiths agree. My personal feelings are quite different from my feelings about public policy and law. All sorts of things are legal but I don’t want to do them. Unless I am forced, not problem.
I wonder how the “less is best” party proposes to keep track of whether docs have complied with the forced ultrasound bill. Is there a paperwork trail? Is there a privacy problem? Who keeps the records? Does any government agency have access to them? Is this just one more bill that adds to our bill as taxpayers?
@Censored bybvbl
All valid questions. No rebuttal from me.
@Censored bybvbl
and yes, that queasy feeling was the earth shifting on its axis.
snicker @Steve Thomas and Censored.
The queasiness passes…..
@Steve Thomas
I play this game with my brother-in-law and my cousin’s boyfriend all the time. We eventually find some common ground – provided it’s not political! Ha ha.
There are too many unanswered questions. This bill was a quickly contrived piece of @$#% passed by a bunch of men too timid to say “vaginal” even as they attempted to force something up women’s vaginas. I wonder how this collected info jives with mandated privacy policies.
@Starryflights Yeah, because they were all so progressive when it came to women’s rights. And they didn’t view women as property at all (well, there was Jefferson’s little slave-girl friend-with-benefits named Sally, but I’m sure her life was just chock full of free choice. In Starry’s alternate universe, women never even had to fight for the right to vote!
@Emma, for their time, the Virginians Starry named were very progressive. They can’t be judged by todays times. Everything is relative.
As for Sally Hemmings, she was probably in a lot better social position than many other slaves.
Things change over time.