Virginia Ultrasound Bill Passes In House

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  1. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    Virginia Ultrasound Bill Passes In House

    By Laura Bassett | HuffPost | 02/22/2012

    Excerpts:

    WASHINGTON – “The Virginia House of Delegates passed on Wednesday a revised version of a GOP-sponsored informed consent bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound at least 24 hours before having an abortion. The new bill, which requires women to receive an external, transabdominal ultrasound rather than a more invasive transvaginal ultrasound, passed by a vote of 65-32.

    Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) revoked his support for the original bill just minutes before the House began debate on it, saying that the government did not have the power to require the transvaginal procedure.

    "Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state," McDonnell said in a statement. "No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure."

    "For this reason ... I am requesting that the General Assembly amend this bill to explicitly state that no woman in Virginia will have to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound involuntarily. I am asking the General Assembly to state in this legislation that only a transabdominal, or external, ultrasound will be required to satisfy the requirements to determine gestational age. Should a doctor determine that another form of ultrasound may be necessary to provide the necessary images and information that will be an issue for the doctor and the patient. The government will have no role in that medical decision," he said.

    Virginia House Speaker William Howell (R) said during floor debates on the measure that McDonnell had helped GOP House members amend the bill based on the recommendations in his statement.

    But Democrats said they were not satisfied with the changes, or with the fact that they were introduced right before the vote on the bill took place."

    I think we need to spend time with this - we shouldn't be playing doctor on the House floor with this kind of language," said Del. David Toscano (D). "The public has an interest in this bill and has not seen it until 20 minutes ago."

    Del. Jennifer McClellan (D) said the amended bill causes more problems than the original, because performing a regular ultrasound on an early pregnancy does nothing to assess the age of the fetus.

    "It tries to fix an issue I've raised on this floor," she said, referring the transvaginal ultrasound mandate, "but in doing so, it not only doesn't fix it but it makes it worse. What you have done is mandated for any abortion done early in a pregnancy an ultrasound that will be utterly useless."

    Members of the state legislature speculated Wednesday morning that Republicans were looking for a way to rewrite the bill to avoid having to fully back down from it, and McClellan tweeted from the House floor around 2:30 pm that "a substitute to the ultrasound bill is being circulated."

    Democratic State Sen. Barbara Favola said she also heard that Republicans lawmakers may be buckling under pressure from women voters. "They're backing off because they're now hearing from women about it," she said. "Yesterday we had hundreds of women line the walkway between General Assembly and the Capitol in silent protest."

    The Virginia General Assembly postponed a vote on the bill twice before taking it up on Wednesday. It has generated a firestorm of controversy because it would force doctors to perform an invasive, often medically unnecessary procedure on women without requiring their consent. Del. Charniele Herring (D) said the law was "akin to rape," and fellow Democratic Del. David Englin pointed out that "object sexual penetration is a serious sex crime in Virginia."

    Jon Stewart lampooned the law on "The Daily Show" Tuesday night, prompting former Virginia Gov. and current Senate candidate Tim Kaine to scold Republicans for turning the state into a "laughingstock" and "fodder for late-night comedy shows."

    "I don't want Virginia to be known as a state carrying out an extreme and even comical campaign against women and their health care choices," Kaine told reporters on Wednesday.

    "Internal ultrasounds are standard medical procedure already for Planned Parenthood in an early pregnancy," said the Republican staffer, who asked that her name not be used because she is not an official spokeswoman. "Unfortunately, not all doctors follow standard procedure. So this bill is helping to prevent against malpractice or a mother being rushed to the hospital with an ectopic pregnancy because the doctor didn't do any imaging before the abortion."

    The staffer said Byron was aware of all the medical implications of the bill, including the fact that the procedure would be physically invasive, before she sponsored it.
    Favola said that in order to diffuse the controversy, some Republicans have suggested amending the bill's language to state that doctors may perform an ultrasound on a woman if the procedure is deemed medically necessary. "It's absolutely silly," she said. "What are they doing? Do they just want to show they have power over women's bodies? If an ultrasound is medically needed, the doctor is already doing it. This is the most demeaning piece of legislation you could come up with."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/virginia-ultrasound-bill-abortion_n_1294026.html
    ……

    This most recent attempt to control women’s bodies, legalize forced ultrasounds without permission and forcing her to hear the fetal heartbeat before she has the abortion is cruel, unConstitutional, and are all draconian methods of restricting women’s rights over her own body and attempting to change the woman’s mind about abortion is a distinct invasion of privacy..

    It has a Hitleresque quality to it that is purely disgusting and more than sick. If the government can make these grotesque rules into law without even having a medical license, what else won’t they do in the future concerning women?

    When untrained far right evangelical morons are voted into office and try to usurp the Constitution to satisfy their sick, destructive beliefs in passing unConstitutional laws there is something horribly wrong with the Democracy we all believe in.

    For years the anti-abortion maniacs have been chipping away at the rights of women by whatever means they can, in order to outlaw abortion, but where are they when our troops were dying daily from 2001 thru 2010? Where was their great devotion for life then? What about the senior citizens that cannot afford medicines that would save their lives, but are left to die, “because it is not the government’s place to give them medicine” Where, exactly, IS their devotion to ‘life’ in those circumstances? And how do they get to pick and choose?
     
  2. HB Surfer

    HB Surfer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    This is FAR too intrusive. I disagree with the passing of this bill. I understand the desire to know how far along a baby is, but there are far less intrusive methods.

    I am glad the governor changed course and no longer supports it.
     
  3. toddwv

    toddwv Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Let's apply this to other "rights".

    Any man who wants to buy Viagra must have his penis measured for length, circumference and "heft" of the scrotum. Results will be posted online.

    Anyone purchasing a gun must watch a 3 hour video showing the after effects of getting shot by a gun.

    Prostate exam? Not without a full trans-urethral ultrasound.

    Want to worship at any church you feel like? Ok, when are you free for your full colonoscopy?

    Fixed. :worker:
     
    ryanm34 and (deleted member) like this.
  4. Ethereal

    Ethereal Well-Known Member

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    To me, it's a state issue anyway. Personally, I think a mandatory ultrasound is totally reasonable. It helps the patient better understand the nature of the procedure, which is always good.
     
  5. Ethereal

    Ethereal Well-Known Member

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    How many of those "rights" are inherently destructive towards human life? Whoops, analogy fail.
     
  6. fiddlerdave

    fiddlerdave Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The Conservatives doing their best to get BIGGER government ON the backs, er I mean tummies, of the people!
     
  7. toddwv

    toddwv Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    No, it really doesn't. It's just adding an unnecessary medical procedure.

    Why do right-wingers want to run up medical costs AND interfere in people's intimate decisions?
     
  8. Jebediah

    Jebediah Banned

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    Great. You've been raped and now **********s in Virginia want this to happen to you against your will...

    [​IMG]

    Animals.
     
  9. Montoya

    Montoya Banned

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    Because right wingers hate woman and the middle class. Oh and "god told them".
     
  10. toddwv

    toddwv Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Ah, so because one side labels something as bad, then all of a sudden relevant analogies no longer pertain?

    Instead of (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)ing about a medical procedure that has been upheld as a right by the Supreme Court, why don't the "pro-lifers" start (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)ing about the lack of pre and post natal care in order to help reduce the US's abysmal infant mortality rates?

    Oh yeah... because once it's left the vagina, it is no longer of any concern to the far right-wing ultra control freaks.
     
  11. Rapunzel

    Rapunzel New Member Past Donor

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    Why is it OK to force a healthcare mandate down the throats of people who don't want it, but not OK to require an ultrasound?

    See lefty that is what government involved in healthcare does.
     
  12. My Fing ID

    My Fing ID Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    What? You think women don't know exactly what they're doing when they get an abortion? Have you ever talked to someone who had an abortion? Have any of them said it was pleasant, or an experience they want to repeat? This is a sick action brought to bear by sick individuals who for some reason think women are running around aborting babies like it's fashionable. It is NOT an easy thing to go through, and there is no reason to further traumatize women who make this difficult decision. There is no reason for such a disgusting law to exist.
     
  13. Jebediah

    Jebediah Banned

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    Here's you're choice... Pay for your own health care or I can shove a probe up your yin yang. Are those things equal? Didn't think so.

    [​IMG]
     
  14. Ethereal

    Ethereal Well-Known Member

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    Then don't live in Virginia.

    I don't know. Why do left-wingers want to do the same things?
     
  15. toddwv

    toddwv Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Right. And we can just let them reinstitute slavery too. I mean, it's not like we have to live there.

    That's not the way things work...
     
  16. siddhartha

    siddhartha New Member

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    ONLY A DOCTOR should be making the decision whether a medical procedure is necessary or not.

    MY GOD, government has no business doing that.

    The right continues to go nuts because Obama wants women to has ACCESS to birth control coverage. They think that requiring insurance coverage is too intrusive a thing for government to impose!

    Yet those same folks thinks its fine and dandy for government to require an unnecessary and very intrusive medical procedure!!!

    How insane can you get?

    Insurance coverage that everyone needs - outrageous
    Ramming a medical device up your vagina for no good reason - no problem.
     
  17. Rapunzel

    Rapunzel New Member Past Donor

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    That's not what they're doing though are they? They voted the internal one down, did they not?

    Like I said this is what government involved in healthcare get you.
     
  18. Ethereal

    Ethereal Well-Known Member

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    lol!!!

    Watching you progressives rage against authoritarian government is hilarious. As if you pathological control freak statists gave a crap about big government intruding on people's lives. Your entire perverted ideology is predicated upon the allegedly sweeping power of government to infringe on individual rights in the name of some nebulous "common good" or "fairness" or "compelling state interest". Oh, but when a state legislature in Virginia wants women to look at an ultrasound before they have a serious operation, you phony "liberals" all of a sudden care about "rights" and individual liberty. So spare us the self-righteous rant, because we can see right through you...:nana:
     
  19. My Fing ID

    My Fing ID Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There's a difference between healthcare and attempting to cause undue mental anguish.
     
  20. Rapunzel

    Rapunzel New Member Past Donor

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    Yes, we can....:clap::clap::clap:
     
  21. Ethereal

    Ethereal Well-Known Member

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    Actually, no, I don't. In fact, I think most Americans are generally ignorant of medical procedures, their implications, and the literature appertaining to medical science in general. It's not a quality I ascribe only to women seeking abortions.

    Please do not pretend like every woman who gets an abortion is fully apprised of the procedure and its implications for their physical and emotional well-being, or that women do not have abortions for trite and shallow reasons.

    Anyway, this is just my personal opinion, and I think it's an issue best left up to the states.
     
  22. Jebediah

    Jebediah Banned

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    What REPUBLICAN government involvement in healthcare gets you. There is a difference.
     
  23. Anikdote

    Anikdote Well-Known Member

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    Ok folks here's the bottom line.

    No one, other than you and your doctor should ever be involved in any medical decision you make. Period.
     
  24. Ethereal

    Ethereal Well-Known Member

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    Actually, no, we can't, because it's been outlawed by a Constitutional Amendment, but for other things not specified in the Constitution, it's rightly a state issue.

    Exactly, you don't have to live there. There are forty-nine other sovereign states to choose from. If you don't like that, then you can renounce your allegiance to our Constitution and go somewhere else.
     
  25. Jebediah

    Jebediah Banned

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    I don't know about that. If Uncle Sam is footing the bill there can and should be limits to what we pay for.
     
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