Associated Press
Will McDonnell back state-mandated, medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds?
Rachel has covered recent developments in Virginia on the show this week, most notably one of the most offensive anti-abortion measures ever considered in the United States. As regular viewers know, Republican state lawmakers in the Commonwealth have approved a bill to require women who wish to terminate a pregnancy to undergo an ultrasound, even if it's medically unnecessary, and even if they don't want one.
More specifically, however, because of the way the legislation is written, the practical effects are breathtaking: most women in Virginia seeking first-trimester abortions will be required by the state to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound.
For Republican policymakers in the 21st century, this is what passes for limited-government principles: invasive and unnecessary medical procedures, mandated by politicians, overriding the judgment of medical professionals, and without the consent of patients.
Seriously.
Dahlia Lithwick asked a good question in Slate yesterday: "Where's the outrage?"
Proponents seem to be of the view that once a woman has allowed a man to penetrate her body once, her right to bodily autonomy has ended.
During the floor debate on Tuesday, Del. C. Todd Gilbert announced that “in the vast majority of these cases, these [abortions] are matters of lifestyle convenience.” (He has since apologized.) Virginia Democrat Del. David Englin, who opposes the bill, has said Gilbert’s statement “is in line with previous Republican comments on the issue,” recalling one conversation with a GOP lawmaker who told him that women had already made the decision to be "vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant." (I confirmed with Englin that this quote was accurate.)
That’s the same logic that animates the bill’s sponsor in the House of Delegates, Del. Kathy J. Byron, who insisted this week that, “if we want to talk about invasiveness, there's nothing more invasive than the procedure that she is about to have." Decoded, that means that if you are willing to submit to sex and/or an abortion, the state should be allowed to penetrate your body as well.
Dahlia added that the state-mandated procedure being pushed by Virginia Republicans "under any other set of facts," would "constitute rape under state law."
The next question is whether Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), who makes no secret of his desire to join his party's presidential ticket this year, intends to sign this monstrous piece of legislation. He's already expressed his support, but the governor's office indicated yesterday McDonnell and his staff still intend to "review" the bill, and may yet make changes to it.
In the meantime, in light of the larger Republican agenda of late -- limiting contraception access, targeting Planned Parenthood, opposing the Violence Against Women Act, "Personhood" amendments -- Dahlia suggests there's a "War on Women" underway. Given the circumstances, it's hard to reach any other conclusion.
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It is appropriate that the state which brought the first slaves to the continent, would be in the forefront of state sponsored rape of women. The Nazi's based their sterilization and euthanasia laws on Virginia Statutes, even the Soviets and the Communist Chinese would be astounded at the zeal which the Commonwealth of Virginia is exhibiting in punishing its female citizens. Virginia, obviously, is no longer for lovers, just haters.
You ASSUME all Virginians are like this? Get over yourself and your bigotries.
@Marion 492170 there is no assumption. The Virginian lawmakers are about to make law of rape....there you go.
If all Virginians are NOT like this, where are the crowds out stopping this legislation? Sounds to me like this is fine with most Virginians.
OK, CybrGuy, what are you personally doing to stop this? Yeah, you really should have put a little more thought into that. While it is disheartening that people in Virginia apparently can't be arsed to take to the barricades over this law, the fact is that doing so would not change the outcome, no more than the protests in Wisconsin stopped the anti-union legislation from going through there. Republicans want what they want, and when they get what they want, they want even more.
In America we have the greatest protest device ever invented--the voting booth. New legislators can overturn bad legislation with no shots fired.
Making intelligent decisions requires a mysterious substance that is in short supply in Virginia.
Trouble is, Paul, that the Republicans have been busy making it hard to vote and to register to vote in all the states they currently control. That makes it harder to make the normal political process an agent of change. My hope is, that by going after the rights of women, the Republicans are making their voter-suppression efforts meaningless. Shaving a few thousands voters here and and a few thousand voters there from the electorate may provide no benefit to Republicans if they end up turning the majority of women against them.
These same dingalings who are sot hot-to-trot over these mandatory transvaginal sonogram bills are the same people who have pushed for "conscience clauses" allowing doctors to refuse procedures or pharmacists to dispense meds if it violates some religious tenet. What would they say if a doctor refused to perform one of these needless procedures as a matter of conscience?
They would say, "Waaah, my religious liberties!" That's what they'd say.
This is a clear affirmation that the religious conservatives consider any women who has sex as either a whore or a wife, there can be no in between. A women who has sex must be married and ready to bear children. Any other situation defines a women as sexual libertine.
This is not about abortion, this is about legislating sexual morality. This is just Rick Santorum and his fellow religious zealots mandating that 'special sex' is the only moral and legal sexual activity. This law is punishment for sex outside the religious ideal.
Will the navy sail away to more fertile grounds?Will Virginia Beach require women to wear one piece suits so as not to tempt? Will the statehouse now have to adjourn to Nevada to party down?
This would be funny if it was not so real.
Can the Christian burka be far behind?
It sounds like Republicans have stopped picking on Muslims ...
... so now they are picking on women.
No, Republicans are able to multitask on these things.
The way to get people to care is to have everyone start calling this "the Republicans want to rape women law." The Republicans got tons of mileage out of "death panels" and they didn't even exist.
R.epublicans
A.re
P.uritanical
E.mperors
law?
Good idea, but E.mperors??
I suggest one of these "E"-words -- eletists, elders, excentrics, enslavers, evangelists, exploiters, or extremeists. Instead.
What do you all think? Which one is best?
Hopefully the outrage will come after much organizing and education throughout the Spring and Summer, and will result in an outpouring of women voters that will retire these stupid men. If, in fact, that turns their state legislature upside down, it will be worth the wait. I can only hope that Virginia has been paying attention to Wisconsin.
It seems to me that should he sign this law, that women would rise up and throw the bums out ..... maybe...part of me wants him to sign it so that he can be seen for what he is and part of is sh*t scared that if he does, apathy will rule the day and we will be back in the dark ages.....
I'll be outraged. This is all TERRIBLE. These kinds of medical examinations (those that fit under the "invasive" umbrella), I'm sorry, I find them very painful. They cause near fainting in me every time. But seriously, it's not like anyone makes a decision to have an abortion based on whether or not they'll have to have a vaginal ultrasound. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like this won't reduce the number of abortions at all. (Oh but hey, you know what can? Birth control! Fancy concept.) What does this added pain/intrusion/invasion/violation accomplish? It's wrong in every single sense of that word. Unintended pregnancies can be hard enough, I speak from personal experience. I can't believe these lawmakers who want to make them that much more difficult. Is this what they were elected to do? Are they serving the will of the people here?
You're very right. We should all be outraged.
What does this added pain/intrusion/invasion/violation accomplish?
This law is not intended to correct or accomplish anything. It is simply punishment for women.
It is government mandated rape as a punishment for crimes against religious morality.
I'm already outraged!
These people are sadists. There is no other explanation.
What does it accomplish? Well, for one, it punishes women for being tramps who want to escape the responsibility of their actions. Punishment and revenge are major drivers of right-wing actions, so if something looks punitive on their part, it probably is.
The fact that abortions are done for compelling reasons (the pregnancy in some way threatens the life of the mother, or the fetus has some serious deformity such as developing without a brain) never enters into their little lizard brains. They truly and delusionally believe in their line that this all about giving the woman information, as if getting an abortion was a thoughtless whim, rather than the result of actual information which has compelled her to take this step.
No, they'd prefer to believe that by punishing women in this way, they will force them to make the decision that the smug patriarchal SOBs want them to make. And maybe it's also about exercising power. Perhaps these men see pregnancy as the vindication of the power they feel they have over women, and that abortion is an intolerable defiance of that power. Then, in that case, power must be reasserted at any cost.
OK, I can see I'm all over the place on this. Lots of anger.
MeddlingMonk: No you are not all over the place. You are right and feel free to vent your anger. I have been doing the same thing and not nearly as nicely as you have.
I just want to say that this whole mess breaks my heart. It is so wrong and so abusive I could cry. Where's the compassion? They act like an abortion is a day at the park and we would all love to have one. I ask again, where is the compassion? I must add that this is rape by the state and emotional rape right when someone needs just a shoulder to cry on. Where's the compassion?
This legislation is pure and simple misogyny. A transvaginal ultrasound via an internal probe? Really? Even though the women have already tested positive on a doctors' pregnancy tests? Why do some men feel that this is necessary? Because they need to punish the women for getting pregnant. They don't even think about punishing the men who impregnated these women. Why do these legislators hate women so much? Why do they want to medically rape them? Because rape is an age-old method men use to hurt, punish and control women. The hippocampus area of their brains has been stimulated, and they react both sexually and angrily. The result? Rape her, rape her, rape her! The primitive brain takes over. So much for being civilized.
Criminal battery:
So Republicans have mandated that doctors must rape all women seeking abortion.
Even for women already raped for real.
Because the Bible says so.
The same Bible that says God created the world at the same time writing was invented.
Newsblog903, "Where is the compassion?" These Conservatives are born without the compassion gene. It is not possible for them to experience compassion or empathy.
Guh... I feel sick to my stomach.
Maybe we could help Virginia come up with a new bumper sticker/slogan....hummmmm Something like "Virginia is for Vaginas". The old slogan (Virginia is for Lovers) implies coupling without the intent to reproduce - ergo, the need for contraceptives.
Oklahoma has flatout banned abortion and contraception: http://livenudepolitics.com/2012/02/17/oh-oklahoma-personhood-act-bans-abortion/
Maybe we could help Virginia come up with a new bumper sticker/slogan....hummmmm Something like "Virginia is for Vaginas". The old slogan (Virginia is for Lovers) implies coupling without the intent to reproduce - ergo, the need for contraceptives.
What makes me so crazy is that two Democrats in the Virginia Senate, including one from the district just west of mine, Chuck Colgan -- FORMERLY one of my favorites -- voted for this horrible bill. They are both Catholic. Not only that, but the favorite senator actually SPONSORED the personhood bill, declaring life begins at conception! I am SO angry at him. He not only is a traitor to other Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly, but to all women.
Just because he's a Democrat, doesn't mean he is progressive or that he even cares about women.
Meanwhile, politics is still a man's world. Issa not only wouldn't let any Democratic women (or any Democrats at all) speak on the panel about the birth control compromise, he wouldn't let two Republican women in favor of the compromise speak either. When people like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins try to speak up for the moderates and the women in their party, they get shut down by the Tea Party Republicans... who are mostly men.
The problem is, I know Sen. Colgan, and I respected him. I could not vote for him, because he was not my senator, but went to debates at which he appeared. I spoke highly of him to people in his district. He's 85 years old, for Pete's sake, and he really should have retired. He's the oldest senator in the Virginia General Assembly. He wanted to, but we begged him to run because he's still very sharp, and we knew Democratic ownership of the Senate (and the roadblocks to all these horrible bills) depended on his running again. I NEVER expected this man to sponsor the personhood bill. I feel very betrayed.
Pol ~ You are obviously involved enough to know Virginia politics, so YOU have an opportunity now to run for office. Use your anger constructively & do something good with it! When is the deadline for filing in VA? If still time, seek out friends & family for support, then get your affairs in order & file to get on the ballot. Once you've filed, the local Democrats will provide seed money and begin fundraising for further financial support. Lord knows both parties in all states need smart, steady women in office. You go, girl... you can do this!!
Whether it is "rape under state law" or not; it is still rape! These are the morality police speaking to us.
The the GOP adds another weapon to fight it's War on Women.
Government Mandated Rape as punishment violation of religious morality.
Perhaps next we can expect these rapes to carried out on the streets of our Nation in the same fashion as Taliban did in Afghanistan? Or maybe a glass full of acid to the face would be quicker?
There is a protest scheduled at Richmond Capitol on Monday - over 1300 have committed to attend on facebook: http://www.roanokefreepress.com/?p=15553
Let's hope they show up. And let's hope that it gets the attention it deserves.
"Where's the outrage?"
This one's on a semi-slow burn. Let the words 'right-wing mandatory rape law' percolate for a while, let the GOPer candidates hear about it in their rallies and the media types get an earful.
Some things take a little time to build up, like the negative reaction to the House Republicans' hostage-taking over the debt ceiling or the Schiavo controversy.
Last night a shorter description of this law came to mind: "state rape." (#staterape) pass it on...
I wonder if the reason there isn't a bigger uproar is because at some level, most women feel tremendous guilt over aborting her baby. This is just my theory, but I think women may feel a collective guilt and feel such punishment (the ultrasound) is warranted.
The far right, religious crowd has done an effective job at pushing the guilt buttons in women over sex, in gay people, in people who have to accept some form of welfare, and on and on. They're insidious and cruel, but we have to stand together and not let them cow us under.
Will they give you a burka or an examination gown to wear while they rape you ?
The Virginia law meets all the definitions of rape under the laws of my state. I'm from Kansas and we have lots of right-wing nutjobs here. They will take whatever power they think they have to trample women's reproductive rights. Yes, I said, "Rights." This is settled law. What Virginia is doing is clearly unconstitutional.
I couldn't believe my ears when Rachel first started talking about this a couple of nights ago. I kept saying that it was rape. And it is.
I have seen the nutjobs and wingnuts overreach before. It will take acts like this one and the voter suppression and the contraception issues and so on and so on. They have gone too far.
I'm a boomer and woman. If I have to fight for reproductive rights again, I will. You younger women are so lucky to have grown up in a era where women's reproductive dignity is respected. It is time to take our power back and kick these weird men where it hurts. (I mean at election time rather than in the crotch) Though, whatever works...
Where the @!$%# is the AMA in all this? Where are the doctors going "hell no I'm not going to do this"?
I am really scared of these wingnuts -- I feel like I'm seeing Nazi brownshirts. I wish someone could tell me I'm just paranoid.
Me to. But you're not paranoid.
It's easy to carelessly fling around words like Nazi. However, the Republicans have not done anything even remotely like what the Nazis did. In that sense, that of evil actually committed, the Republicans are nowhere near the Nazis. But could they be?
In Mein Kampf, Hitler in one passage expresses the wish-fantasy that WWI could have turned out better if Jews had been gassed. Recently, a Republican Tennessee state representative Richard Floyd has expressed the wish-fantasy of stomping mudholes (whatever those are exactly) in transgendered persons. What is the difference between these two? Only that Hitler achieved the power and the freedom to turn his violent fantasies into reality, and Floyd so far has not.
Republicans, the more far-right ones, often express vicious fantasies about what they would like to do to women, to Muslims, to LGBT persons or to anyone who isn't precisely like them. If they could achieve the power and the freedom to indulge these fantasies, how would the outcome be any different from what the Nazis achieved?
So, no. You're not being paranoid. The first step in stopping Republicans is to recognize just how dangerous their ideas really are.
Where's the outrage, Virginia? It's up to those of us who live here to show it. I already have, how about you?
House Bill 462 Vote Count
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+vot+HV0765+HB0462
Senate Bill 484 Vote Count
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+vot+SV0196SB0484+SB0484
Find and contact your legislators:
http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform
Where is the Justice Department in the face of these coordinated efforts to eviscerate not only women's reproductive rights, but voters' rights as well? Why is there not more of an outcry at Eric Holder's inertia in the face of these rollbacks of Constitutionally guaranteed protections? Can anyone imagine Bobby Kennedy sitting placidly by collecting a paycheck as the Constitution was being shredded.
We've reached a point at which states like Virginia are legalizing sexual assault; anyone who believes that these outrages will stop with Virginia is deluded.
I hope that the media will begin to call out the Justice Department for its lack of aggressive action against these ideologues who wrap themselves in the cloak of patriotism while systematically eroding our civil liberties.
I cannot help but feel that this is rape - no matter how you look at it.
The question I have is why is Rachel the only woman talking about this? Where are the other media pundits like Father Joe Scarborough and Mother Mika B? They have abandoned all women by their silence. And yet they dare imply that this governor wants to be VP!
Where are the women in the state? Why aren't they flocking to the media, the capitol buildings and to the newspapers? You have a voice. You must use it to stop this insanity...for yourselves, your sisters, and your daughters.
There's a silent protest on Monday at the capitol in Richmond at 11 am and a rally later in the day. I really don't think many people in Virginia know what's happening. It's kinda scary.