Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

In order to get an abortion in Virginia, lawmakers have approved that there be a mandated ultrasound prior to the abortion, in an effort to decrease abortions.

The bill will exempt victims of rape and incest, but it originally included victims as well.

The bill is waiting a signature from the Governor, who has less than a week left to sign it.

Alabama currently has the above law, but passed a measure last week that would "require a woman to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound and then be FORCED to view the images as well as have the doctor describe them to her."


I find this horrifying, in 2012 nonetheless.

Where do pro-lifers stand on this issue?



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Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

seems awfully cruel and really how can you FORCE someone to look?

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

It's ridiculous.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

horrific, arcane and total BULLSHIIT. to force a woman to have an unnecessary medical procedure to PUNISH her for wanting to have an abortion is abhorrent.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

I am 100% pro-choice, however I don't think this is the worst thing in the world...I don't believe in the reasoning behind it..."to decrease abortions" and I certainly think if it was actually said "to make them look", that is absolutely horrible and illegal, I would think- you can't force a portion to look at something.

I do believe that some women make the decision to have an abortion without thinking it through.
Others, absolutely, do think it through.

Although emotionally it might be hard for a woman to look (if she chooses) at the actually sonogram photos, if she has thought her decision through then it should not change things- seeing a photo is just a visual of what is actually inside of you anyway. If it does result it changing her decision, so be it- it is still her decision- noone forced her either way- just kept her educated and informed.

As far as the procedure goes (transvaginal sono)- if a woman is going to have an abortion, the abortion is much more invasive.

Again, Im pro-choice but I'm also for women making responsible decisions for their specific situations and being educated about their choice.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

I think it's a disgusting law. It hope it's found unconstitutional. To force someone to get a vaginal sonogram and to look? sounds like Clockwork Orange to me.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

How could you possibly force anyone to have a transvaginal ultrasound? That's absolutely ridiculous!

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

Honestly, I think its strange but, I don't see why so many people are appalled by it. Why shouldn't you have accountability for your actions? If there is nothing wrong with having an abortion then why should it be so horrific to have see what actually is being aborted?

I think the problem is that we all know the answer to this. Any mother knows that at their 12 wk sono their child LOOKED and ACTED like exactly that - a child. So I guess that is what is cruel about it? It's more humane to just let women "abort" the life in side of them without having to look at it? This law is exempting the innocent victims.

Maybe it will actually stop the use of abortion as birth control if women have to look at the face they are aborting. I don't see what's so wrong about making women accountable for their actions. And, further, this isn't a "procedure." It's a lot less invasive than an abortion I think. It's a sonogram. We all have them for one reason or another.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

my honest answer is i dont know exactly where i stand. my personal and emotional views are probably different from ny legal ones. legally, i think this will be found unconstitutional. personally, I--myself--could never have an abortion, and i find it hard to determine exactly when life begins and is deserving of some protection, even at the expense of the women carrying the embryo/fetus/baby.

ETA- while I would normally be appalled at the idea of forcing a woman to have a vaginal ultrasound, she has to go through much worse to have an abortion so....

Message edited 3/4/2012 10:23:42 PM.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

From a medical standpoint, I think there is nothing wrong with an ultrasound verifying a uterine pregnancy prior to abortion. If you are having a medical procedure, I see nothing wrong with imaging to confirm a "condition" in this case pregnancy.

In this case it seems the ultrasound is purely to elicit guilt and regret to convince the woman not to go through with it which i think is wrong. Medical procedures should be done for medical reasons only.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

It's manipulation pure and simple.

Women will go wherever they can to have abortions. Shame that the government is in my uterus.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

I will admit I'm pro choice before responding.

This is an attack on women.

This is an attack on women's rights.

This is an attack on medical care.

Women are second class citizens and it makes Ill.

I'm tired of the GOVERNMENTtelling me what medical procedure I can or can't have.

It's not of your business.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

i see nothing wrong with it. people should be aware that there is a human being inside of them before they choose to abort. that little being has a tiny beating heart. it should be seen. and then if the person still chooses to go through with it then so be it. but i don't think many people understand the concept fully until they see it with their own eyes. and why would be it be so bad to change the mind of someone who initially thought of abortion? why would it be so bad for that person to decide to keep their child or give it up for adoption? there are so many people in this world who want to have a child so desperatly, and can't, and to boot, can't adopt because of the cost, or the wait. why would it be so bad if someone changed thier mind because they finally understood after seeing the ultrasound that it is a human life, a little tiny live person in there.
when I was pregnant with my daughter, it was the most amazing ultrasound to see, that first ultrasound. really brought it into perspective. that little beating heart was the most amazing thing to see. everyone is entitled to their opinion, and i can respect that. but, i don't see how this can be such an awful thing. and medically speaking, i would want to know that the pregnancy was intrauterine before someone just decided to perform a procedure like that. this way i don't end up infertile because some idiot doctor made a mistake. jmo

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

I'm convinced the government is trying to make it as difficult as they can for women.

Let me get this straight....they don't want health insurance to cover the cost of birth control so that responsible women can avoid unplanned pregnancies (yet from what I understand men can have viagra covered to help them get women pregnant in the first place). Then when a woman has an unplanned pregnancy and has to make one of the hardest decisions of her life, they are going to FORCE you to look at it. So let's say it does change some women's minds and they keep the babies....now we have unwanted children out there who may be abused or resented or not raised in a loving home, possibly being supported by the government because the mom can't afford them.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

I don't think this law is "forcing" a medical procedure on someone because I don't think any doctor would do an abortion without an ultrasound. A transvaginal ultrasound would be necessary especially if the baby young. I know 2 woman (in different states) who had abortions and the clinics both did ultrasounds. One of the girls wanted to keep the pictures of the baby, then she aborted it.

Forcing someone to look at the pictures....well that part doesn't sound right.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

I don't necessarily think that a woman should be forced to look at images in front of her, but i "get it"...

Its a very true statement to say that someone is easier to do when its more "out of sight out of mind". You can trick your mind into disconnecting a bit from something you are doing...

If you know you are pregnant, you know a baby is growing in your uterus. But especially in early pregnancy its easy to think its just a bunch of cells, slowly growing and not much of anything. When a woman is pregnant for the very first time (who WANTS to be pregnant) there is no greater joy and amazement than seeing a tiny being moving around and seeing the flicker of a heartbeat. It makes it very, very "real".

Women need to know what they are doing before they do it. It's easy to say MOST women know exactly what that baby looks like or what it REALLY is, but i don't think all women "get it". That it is indeed a LIFE, and a life they are ending. Even if you are very pro choice or feel that it's just a clump of cells, that clump of cells is forming into a baby with a heart, a brain, a nervous system etc...

And again..i don't think a woman needs to be tortured for her decision, but its important more than anything that women know what exactly what they are doing. Just not sure if the ultrasound is the way to go...

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

I'm 100% pro-choice, and honestly, I don't think it's that bad. Is it forbidding women from having abortions? No. It requires a measure of accountability before going forward with a very weighty decision. It actually reminds me of the waiting period before purchasing a gun.

I think this provides at least some minimal rights to the unborn child (the right to be seen and acknowledged by its mother before termination), while maintaining the mother's right to abort it if desired.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

I fully admit that I am 100% ProLife. I don't know anything more about the bill other than what you wrote but from your description, I see nothing wrong with it and actually think that it's a great idea. In my experience, an astounding number of people don't realize that a child that small is actually living with a beating heart and if it only changed the mind of one woman, it would be worth it.

I'm hesitant to respond to this post because many of the women on this board have a hard time respecting other people's opinion's or feel the need to debate the topic. Hopefully, this won't turn into drama but from past experience, these conversations never end well.

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

Re: Pro-choice or pro-life, how do you feel about this

I'll throw my hat in the ring for this one.

While I hear what people are saying regarding the usefulness of this procedure, it is not the government's place to determine that - it is between a doctor and a patient to decide which procedures are MEDICALLY necessary. Pregnant women choose procedures like amnios and other testing with advice and counsel from their doctors, not the government. This is an invasive medical procedure that the government is FORCING on women, for the sole purpose of shaming them, not because it is medically necessary for their health (OR the health of the unborn child). If an ultrasound is required, let the doctor decide. Old white men sitting in a building somewhere have no right to tell me or any other woman what medical procedures I MUST have. This coming at the same time as the proposal of bills allowing employers to opt out of providing birth control coverage in their benefits package is just too much. It is all, together, an attack on women's rights and IMO is threatening to send this country back decades.