Virginia's vaginal probe ultrasound bill, as reworked by Governor Bob McDonnell, just passed the Senate 21-19. Our guest from the House of Delegates, Dave Englin, writes:
The next step is that the amended bill returns to the House for the House to either accept or reject the Senate amendments, which I expect will happen tomorrow. I fully expect the House will accept the Senate amendments, which will then send the bill to Gov. McDonnell to sign, which I assume he will, since he wrote the bill!
In sum, Virginia Republicans took another step toward asserting the state's right to examine a woman's body before she can have an abortion. Only the vaginal probe requirement is gone.
During today's debate, Democratic state Senator Janet Howell proposed a series of amendments addressing who would pay for the examination that the state would require. Earlier this month, she linked the vaginal probe to prostate exams for men seeking Viagra. Today, Howell proposed that any ultrasound be optional. She proposed that the state pay for the exam for women who can't afford it or don't have insurance. She proposed that insurance be required to cover the exam. She proposed that if a doctor tells a woman there's evidence of severe deformities, the woman would not have to have the procedure.
The Republican majority rejected all of those ideas. They did agree to add an exception for rape and incest -- if a woman has become pregnant that way, and reported it to the police, the bill no longer asserts Virginia's right to examine her body.
Earlier today: A Virginia Senate committee voted down a proposal to end Medicaid funding for abortions in the case of severe deformities. The Richmond Times-Dispatch says the state spent $3,000 last year on 10 procedures.
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Maybe, you should start hitting all these radical republican politicians where it really hurts. Pleading with them only boosts their already over inflated egos.
Maybe, you should start hounding their wives and making their lives miserable , until they convince their husbands not to pass this hateful legislation.
Hit them where it hurts between their own legs.
Unfortunately, their wives agree with them.
Then hound them even more.... Why should they get a free pass if they agree with them? Shame on them even more !
The new amended bill should be referred to as the "Revised because one rape is enough" bill.
I'm thinking about that pundit Fox had on declaring that women in the military are raped "too much." I guess Republicans have finally put a number on "too much." It's one more than the rest of us think "too much rape" is. See, they're not so extreme! It's just one extra rape!
Virginia is no longer for lovers.
Bingo!
I think they're changing the spelling to 'Vaginia'...
I think the next state elections are going to be real interesting. This law may bring out enough voters who are angry about the law. But I am not so sure that passing the law is going to bring out the voters in favor of the law. I predict that some VA legislators are going to be gone and replaced with women. And I would not bet that any state legislator who voted for the law is safe.
Sorry, Governor! It's too late.
You'll always be Bob McVaginal Ultrasound to all women around the country!
Not mandating StateRape to access a legal medical procedure by only mandating StateAssault to access the procedure. . .AIN'T GOOD ENOUGH !
Misogyny reigns in the Commonwealth . . . still.
There are two things I think everyone should read about the history of all of this. These are very important things to know about who these people are and who they are following. It's not a bunch of "conspiracy" weird stuff, just plain, real history. The first is:
The Fundamentalist History They Don't Want You To Know
and the second is:
The Christian Right and the Rise of American Facism (I'm not crazy about the title, but the article is very good, indeed.)
Knowledge is power, folks. Read up.
Thank you for those links. I found the first link especially interesting. I did not realize what a reversal the Baptists had done in the past three decades in the separation of church and State as well as concerning Roe v. Wade.
Most Baptists and evangelicals don't know this either. It's time for some history lessons. In the second article, the part that is really important is the section on "Dominionists." It is extremely accurate about what has been happening since the 1980s...the drastic change in fundamental thought and theology.
The GOTP whines about mandated healthcare, but proposes legislation to mandate rape.
Aren't these losers the same ones who claim that mandatory health care is unconstitutional based on the notion that if someone doesn't want to pay for health care, the government can't force them to. How is this any different? Using their logic, then no woman should have to pay for a medical exam they don't actually want to have.
Yes Virginia... There is a Republican in your Vagina ! *shakes head and slowly walks away*
I don't believe any of this crap. I do know now (and it's taken me long enough!) that everything un-American is a clumsy way of saying "Republican". That being the case, we can expect Sanctum Sanctorum's disgusting vomit falling on our Bill of Rights; the Holy Rollers in the midWest making war on our Constitution, all because we let a couple of rich dumb POS's steal those elections, back in 2000 and 2004. We got to safeguard our vote. After that we got to use it. And make it a family affair. ALL OF US.
And never forget that this crap, this UN-AMERICAN GARBAGE which is pouring out from what, to my utter shock, has shown itself now to be Public Enemy #1 regarding our great Country--the Republican Party. Arrests ought to be going on right now, of those crooks who (with the help of 'Petitioner's' good buddy on the Supreme Court), --stole our country back in 2000 and 2004.
What I Learned on February 28th
Early this morning, I learned that Governor McDonnell had ordered a SWAT Team to cover a Candlelight Vigil I attended the night before at the Governor’s Mansion. Riot police were hiding in the bushes, while my two small children and I sang, “This Little Light of Mine.”
In the mid-morning, I learned that compassion and logic do not have to be mutually exclusive, when a Virginia Senate Finance Committee quashed a House bill that would have cut funding to low-income women seeking abortions when a physician had certified a gross abnormality and malformity in their pregnancy.
In the afternoon, however, I learned that, as a woman, I do not have the capacity to make an informed decision without my physician performing what is deemed to be an unnecessary medical procedure.
I learned that 21 Virginia Senators are better equipped and trained to prescribe medical procedures than treating physicians. I also learned that 21 Virginia Senators can mandate a medical procedure on a woman even when the medical community deems the procedure medically unnecessary.
I learned that 21 Virginia Senators may have the compassion to exempt victims of the historically underreported crimes rape or incest from this legislation, but they are without any true logic by requiring these victims to have reported the crime to the police to qualify for the exemption.
I learned that 21 Virginia Senators can mandate a medical procedure on a woman but refuse to require an insurance company to cover the procedure. I also learned that 21 Virginia Senators can mandate a medical procedure but refuse to pay for the procedure if a woman cannot afford it.
I learned that 21 Virginia Senators can mandate a medical procedure even when the procedure itself does not provide the information sought for “informed consent.”
I learned that the flip phrases “jelly on the belly” and “abortion is a matter of lifestyle convenience,” which I personally heard in the halls of my state legislature, translate to actual votes and platform positions of disengaged legislators.
I learned that the prophetic phrase of Orwellian logic, “Ignorance is Strength,” came true in Virginia – not in 1984, but in 2012.
Just a correction: the link to the text of the bill is incorrect. It links to a substitute of the bill submitted by opponent Sen. Howell and is, shall I say, much more lenient. Howell's substitution does not mandate ultrasounds, instead saying that "a woman may ask to have fetal transabdominal ultrasound imaging performed for the purpose of determining gestational age."
The substitute was rejected, and the actual version that passed the Senate is this. Plus a Howell amendment regarding exceptions for rape and incest, I believe. The legislature's website is slightly confusing to navigate.
Can we call it the State of Vaginia from now on?
Maybe we should wake up, smell the coffee and put the gun laws to good use. "Bring your gun to your forced trans-vaginal ultrasound day!" couldn't be more Red, White and Scarlet than that. A nice Smith and Wesson 380 would serve as a non-consent form I think! Hell, you can take a gun just about anywhere else in Virgin-ia, why not there? I am just asking the question.
Hold on, but I read another article saying they were backing off of all of this. I read it here: http://tothecenter.com/2012/02/virgina-senate-backs-off-ultrasound-bill/
Is that... not true?
Dear Rachel,
I have started to comment on this subject many times, however, I have been reluctant to comment because the example that I am going to use involves my father (If my father knew that I was writing you on this subject he would be upset with me), but I feel this needs to be said.
My father is a widowed father of three adult children (two daughters and one son) I am his youngest daughter. My father is a devote Christian and a really really great guy! However, my father is living every single father’s nightmare. Approximately two months after the death of my mother, my father was arrested and eventually convicted of indecent solicitation of a minor. My father asked the minor if she was a virgin. She said yes, and then my father (in a drunken stupor) asked her if she wanted to lose her virginity to him. She said no, and that was the end of the conversation. The next day the minor told her mother what my father said and the mother called the police. My father was arrested and eventually convicted. Now he has to register as a sex offender for the next ten years. He lost his job, his home, and his ability to find work. Basically his life has been destroyed over this conversation. Recently, my father had the opportunity to ask the judge that convicted him why she convicted him and she said that during his police interrogation he said that he had thought about having sex with her. Therefore, because of his intent, his life was destroyed.
Here is my point. If the FBI’s definition of rape is penetration without consent; then why isn’t the trans-vaginal ultrasound proposal a sex crime? The intent to penetrate a woman’s vagina without her consent is present in this legislation! I mean after all, if legislation can destroy my father and our family because of something he thought; why should not the same standard apply to our politicians? Their intent is there too!