Trans-Vaginal in Virginia

In a bit of good news the Virginia Governor, Bill McDonnell had an abrupt about face this week and recommended that the bill recently passed requiring any women seeking an abortion undergo a trans-vaginal ultrasound be reversed.

Apparently the fetal image would have remained in a woman's medical file for seven years, and any doctor who failed to perform a pre-abortion ultrasound would be liable to prosecution and fines.

Both Saturday Night Live and the Daily Show with John Stewart satirized the bill and the original version- supported by McDonnell drew a large crowd of protesters to the state capital in Richmond earlier this week.

The reversal of McDonnell’s decision has been disappointing for the bill’s supporters. I find it really difficult to see how anyone could fail to see the problem with requiring a trans-vaginal ultrasound- you literally insert an 8-10 inch wand into the vagina. If the woman doesn’t consent to this incredibly invasive procedure, how can you interpret that as anything other than rape?

Even the pro-life Rutherford Institute - backers of Del. Bob Marshall’s personhood bill, which gives fetuses human rights - has expressed constitutional concerns over the ultrasound bill.

Virginia's House of Delegates by a vote of 65-32 approved the revised bill, which calls for women to undergo an abdominal ultrasound but not necessarily a more invasive internal one as required under the original measure. It is unclear if the State Senate is going to follow suit.

Ultrasounds are a regular part of Planned Parenthood's process when obtaining an abortion and it is done for medical reasons. To insist upon a mandate on the type of ultrasound isn't only unnecessary, it falls in line with the strategy for slowly eroding the legality of abortion as a procedure in all. To their credit, I imagine most women who want abortions do so with the understanding that an ultrasound is going to take place in some capacity, but you cannot mandate that and you certainly can't assume that the ultrasound would be an invasive trans-vaginal one.

I appreciate the backlash over the bill because it calls attention to the lengths that pro-life supporters will go to demand that if abortions are available legally than it has to be with as many hurdles or barriers as possible, regardless of what that means for the women actually affected.